One Missed Strike, Part I
by Davin Sunrider
Summary: (ANH AU) In an alternate universe, the duel at Mustafar ended differently, and the galaxy took a divergent path as a result: Darth Vader is the Emperor, the Death Star does not exist, and Luke Skywalker knows exactly where he came from.
1. A New Hope

**One Missed Strike**

Prologue:

The universe itself is a duality. All of existence since things began existing has been a never-ending war between the forces of order and of chaos. Some would describe these forces as good and evil, respectively, but this would be inaccurate, since each can serve both the notions of 'good' and 'evil' impartially. Too much order results in stagnation and decay, but too much chaos results only in destruction and confusion. Instead, the secret to a successful existence is to find the balance between order and chaos, according to some.

The universe is also an ever-expanding web of choices, of paths created by every decision ever made, every event where chance was as much in favor of one thing as it was of the other. According to some theories, the universe itself splits at each of these divergences, and follows _both_ paths, creating endless copies of itself where the road not taken by you _is_, in fact, taken by you, though neither 'you' is ever aware you made the other choice. The choice can be something as simple as deciding to sleep on your left side or your right, or taking the slightly longer road to your destination or using a shortcut. Or it can be something as major as deciding to answer yes or no to a marriage proposal, deciding whether or not to use the weapon in your hand to end a person's life.

Sometimes these choices, or these chance events which narrow down to one way or the other, result in diverging paths so separate it is a wonder both roads started from the same place. Sometimes both paths closely parallel one another at places, so similar that a casual observer would not be able to tell the difference between the two, but other times, the paths branch off so widely that one could swear the people and places in both paths had never been the same, had never been the exact same atoms and molecules until one choice or one chance event split them apart and sent them off on their separate ways.

The universe diverges constantly; it has diverged infinite times in the past, and will diverge infinite times in the future. It diverges right here and right now, and also diverged a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

* * *

**One**

(A New Hope)

The halls of _Tantive IV _were normally pristine and white, simple but elegant, typical of Alderaanian design. Except for the occasional console or instrument readout, stark black or red against the white paneling of the walls, the hallways were virtually spotless.

Not so today. Today, ugly black burns dotted the formerly pristine white walls, left by the blasters of Imperial Stormtroopers as they invaded the diplomatic vessel. The corpses of the defenders had been left where they fell, checked only to make sure they were dead before the Imperial troops moved on to secure the rest of the vessel.

Trooper TK-421, also known as Tyraj Kolos, waited at attention beside a half-dozen of his fellow stormtroopers, nervously anticipating the arrival of Lord Vader. The Sith Master himself was coming to check the captured vessel. As Commander-In-Chief of the Imperial military, Lord Vader preferred to take an active role in ruling his empire, leaving the bureaucracy to those best suited for it.

Heavy footsteps announced Lord Vader's coming, and Tyraj made a valiant attempt to straighten even further. As part of the elite 501st Legion, Tyraj Kolos was the best of the best, serving in the Emperor's personal stormtrooper legion by the selection of Lord Vader himself.

Within his protective white shell of armor, Tyraj moved only his eyes as Sith Master Darth Vader stomped onto _Tantive IV,_ looking down at the bodies of the Rebels with a passive, vaguely disgusted expression. Tall and broad-shouldered, Vader filled out a slightly more decorative version of a standard black Imperial officer's uniform quite impressively, looking every inch a grown-up version of the hero he'd been in his youth. Aside from the long black cloak that hung from his shoulders and the lightsaber at his belt, the man that had once been known as Anakin Skywalker was the perfect example of Imperial standards and discipline. His cold blue eyes swept over the scene before him as if picking it apart, and his gaze briefly met Tyraj's before he moved on, his cloak billowing out behind him from the speed of his stride.

TK-421 hurried to match his commander's stride, trying to hide his pride at being here. He'd only recently been selected for the 501st, and was doing his best to live up to the incredible honor of being one of the troopers under the direct command of the Emperor himself. Lord Vader despised weakness and incompetence, so to be chosen to be part of his personal legion said something impressive about each member of the 501st.

If Vader could sense Tyraj's thoughts, as he was rumored to be able, he didn't show it, paying no attention to the stormtroopers marching in step behind him. He moved with single-minded determination down the hallway of _Tantive IV_, only the back of his head and the top of his high collar visible above his cloak. Tyraj could practically _feel_ the intensity of his ice-blue gaze boring into the target ahead of them, a petite, dark-haired young woman dressed in white flanked by four more 501st troopers and a black-uniformed officer.

Lord Vader's irritation was almost palpable, and quite understandable, since only the most serious of matters could draw the attention of the Emperor himself. Tyraj did his best to seem intimidating, knowing he could never match up to the imposing figure of his commander, but he could at least reinforce Lord Vader if nothing else.

"Where are they?" Vader demanded of the young woman, arms crossing over his chest as he came to a stop in front of her.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, Your Majesty," Princess Leia Organa, Senator for Alderaan, replied. She maintained a respectful yet haughty demeanor, appearing insulted that her ship had been stopped and boarded by Imperial troops. "We are nevertheless honored by your presence."

Vader stiffened, his expression hardening. "Do not lie to me, Senator," he said threateningly. "I know they are aboard your ship."

Tyraj sneered beneath his helmet at Organa for trying to deceive the Emperor himself. The nerve!

"Every person aboard this vessel aside from you and your troops is either a part of the crew or a member of my team, my lord," Organa said calmly. "We have no unauthorized passengers."

Lord Vader clasped his hands behind his back beneath his cloak. "Of that, Your Highness," he said sardonically, "I have no doubt." He raised a gloved hand to point at the Alderaanian princess. "Given your family's barely concealed sympathy for the Rebellion, the fugitives are certainly welcome on your ship."

The Sith Master took three steps closer, so that his greater height was that much more intimidating to Organa. "I will give you one more chance," he said gravely. "If you do not tell me where you are hiding the fugitives, I will destroy your ship and everyone on it."

TK-421 grinned smugly behind his helmet. He felt doubly proud that he would be here at this, the completion of the quest that had absorbed Lord Vader for the last twenty years. Leia Organa was hiding on her ship the last known Jedi, the last pathetic remnants of the Order Lord Vader himself had once been a part of, before he discovered their true nature and destroyed them. Tyraj knew he would achieve great prestige for just having been a part of this mission.

Organa kept her calm, an impressive trait under the withering glare of Lord Vader, Tyraj thought. "With all due respect, my lord," she said, "I am afraid you might be mistaken. I harbor no fugitives. I am a loyal member of the Imperial Senate, and I-"

"You are part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor!" Lord Vader snapped, interrupting. He turned his head slightly to look back at the trooper on his other side, gesturing with one hand. "Take her away," he ordered contemptuously.

"Yes, sir," the trooper said, his voice filtered through his helmet. He and the four troopers who had been with Organa formed a circle around her and marched her back in the direction of the hatch. Tyraj watched out of the corner of his eye, noting that Organa's regal bearing did not waver a millimeter as she was led away.

He glanced back ahead to see Lord Vader looking directly at him. Tyraj consciously willed himself not to flinch, chagrined at having broken discipline, if only slightly.

"Come with me," the Sith Master said, either not noticing Tyraj's indiscretion or simply not caring. "You other men, fan out and begin a thorough search for those Jedi. They'll not escape us."

The other troopers saluted smartly and moved off to begin their search. Tyraj fell into step behind and to the left of his commander as Lord Vader set off down the hallway again. The black-uniformed officer accompanied them for a short way.

"My lord, holding her could be dangerous," the officer ventured. "She is well-liked in the Senate. If word of her capture gets out, it could generate sympathy for the Rebellion."

"Nevertheless, she is my only link to the Rebellion," Lord Vader replied. "She knows the location of their secret base."

The officer pursed his lips and shook his head slightly, perhaps a bit sympathetically, as he considered the princess. "She'll die before she'll tell you anything," he said. "My lord," he hastily added.

Vader turned upon him a slight, sinister smile. "Leave that to me," he replied.

The officer nodded once, then held a hand to his ear as information was relayed to him through his earpiece. "Preliminary scan reveals no additional life-forms," he said. "Our troops and a few remaining prisoners are the only beings aboard this vessel."

"Were any escape pods jettisoned during the fighting?" Lord Vader asked.

The officer nodded, consulting a datapad. "One, though scanners revealed there were no life-forms aboard. That section had been damaged; it was likely a short-circuit."

Lord Vader seemed about to say something, then stopped, a thoughtful expression crossing his features. "Yes," he said distractedly. "Ignore the pod; it is of no importance. The Jedi are still onboard." He pointed back down the hallway. "Seal off all exits and secure any remaining escape pods." He met the officer's eyes. "Tell the men not to engage if they see them. Keep the Jedi away from the exits, and I will deal with them myself."

"Yes, sir," the officer said, saluting quickly before moving off.

Lord Vader resumed walking down the hallway, gesturing for TK-421 to follow him. They walked in silence for several minutes, both men's eyes on the lookout for the fugitive Jedi.

"These Rebels are worse than the Separatists," Vader remarked, glancing over his shoulder at Tyraj. "At least the droids weren't spreading propaganda."

Tyraj nodded sharply. He'd seen a few of the pirate holo-transmissions himself, crudely faked security recordings of Lord Vader cutting down children in the old Jedi Temple, with the superscription, "Do you want this man leading you?" in bold letters. As if the noble leader of the Empire would stoop to killing children! The very preposterousness of the idea was enough to make the stormtrooper hate the Rebels that much more. Couldn't they come up with something a little more credible?

"Have you ever fought a Jedi, trooper?" Lord Vader asked, turning to walk through a nearby door.

Tyraj followed him through, into another long white hallway. "I have not, sir," TK-421 answered. "But I'm hoping to have the pleasure today," he said, holding up his blaster rifle for emphasis.

A shadow of a smile flickered across Vader's face for a moment before he resumed his normal grim expression. "You may yet, trooper," he said, an expression of suspicious concentration slowly coming over his face.

As Tyraj watched, the lightsaber hanging from the Sith Master's belt suddenly leaped into its owner's hand. His ice-blue eyes flicked toward a door two meters away, and he ignited the lightsaber, sending a meter-long beam of scarlet energy stabbing into the wall next to the door. The overload of energy fused the controls of the door, effectively sealing it shut.

TK-421 brought his blaster rifle up into firing position, knowing their targets were nearby. He would of course let Lord Vader handle the Jedi, but if he could get a lucky shot in, he might actually be able to earn Vader's respect.

With a hiss of sparks, a blue blade erupted from the wall on the other side of the door and cut in a quick rectangle. As Lord Vader pulled his saber out of the wall, the wielder of the blue lightsaber kicked the section of wall into the hallway and sprang out of the shielded compartment, leaping at Lord Vader with uncanny accuracy.

Darth Vader met the Jedi with his own saber, his long cloak swirling about him as he surged forward, slashing repeatedly. The Jedi, a forty-ish human man about Lord Vader's age with long dark hair, narrowed his green eyes as he and the Sith Master locked blades. The glowing, humming beams of energy formed an X between the two men.

"Traitor," the Jedi grunted, his teeth gritted with effort as he attempted to push the taller Vader back.

Vader said nothing, his face an expressionless mask. He did not even show effort as he shifted his feet for greater stability, muscles flexing beneath the sleeves of his uniform. Slowly, he forced the crossed lightsabers back towards the Jedi, who redoubled his efforts, groaning with exertion.

Suddenly, Lord Vader stepped aside, pushing the now-unbalanced Jedi's lightsaber into the wall with his own. He lashed out with a booted foot and caught the Jedi in the stomach, knocking him away.

The Jedi rose with an agile spin, bringing his lightsaber up to guard against Lord Vader's heavy overhand slash, but in the next second Vader twisted his scarlet blade around the Jedi's and neatly impaled him through the heart. The Jedi slumped silently to the deck, but Vader was already busy with another of the traitorous mystics who jumped out of the hole the first had made in the corridor wall.

This one had short blond hair and wielded a green blade. He was much younger than the first Jedi, probably a student. It sickened Tyraj that these mystics were still able to convert new recruits to their perverted magics, but he reminded himself that Lord Vader had once been a Jedi, before he saw the truth.

Vader made no sound, issued no words of challenge or threat; he simply moved into a guard stance against this new Jedi, who was perhaps half his age. The younger Jedi looked down at his fallen master with a sorrowful, then outraged expression. He brought his lightsaber up, glaring at Lord Vader.

The Emperor slowly circled around to the left, and as he moved, Tyraj watched his facial expression move from impassive to slightly inviting, his cold blue eyes locked on those of his opponent.

"You are powerful, young one," Vader said. "More powerful than your master. He was holding you back; I can sense it. You are ready for so much more."

The young Jedi said nothing, keeping his lightsaber carefully in position as he and the Sith Master circled one another.

"Come with me," Vader invited. "Let me show you the way the Force is meant to be used. You would make a very powerful Sith."

"Keep your teachings to yourself, traitor," the young Jedi spat, unable to resist responding. "You disgust me."

Vader shrugged, smiling slightly. "Your choice," he said casually.

In the next instant, he took one hand off his weapon and unleashed a powerful torrent of crackling blue lightning from his fingertips. The young Jedi caught it on his lightsaber and held it back, effort wracking his features.

Still pouring lightning from his fingers, Lord Vader advanced and slashed horizontally. The young Jedi moved to intercept the Dark Lord's ruby blade, and in so doing left himself open for another burst of lightning. The force of the impact hurled the young Jedi against the wall, and before he could get up, Vader stabbed him cleanly through the heart, just as he had the master.

The Sith Master turned to look at the first body, leaning down to pick up the fallen Jedi Knight's lightsaber, and in so doing, revealed to Tyraj that another form stood behind him in the hole the first Jedi had cut through the wall.

"Sir, look out!" Tyraj said, bringing up his blaster rifle and firing even as he spoke.

The third Jedi, this one a young woman with short dark hair wielding a blue blade, brought up her weapon and deflected Tyraj's blaster bolt back at him. The trooper tried to dodge out of the way, but the searing lance of plasma hit him in the shoulder, at the place where his chestplate and shoulder pauldron met. He stumbled back against the wall, willing himself not to cry out. Through the pain-induced fog, Tyraj thought the young woman's face seemed oddly familiar to him, and he wondered where he could have seen her before.

Meanwhile, Lord Vader ignited his lightsaber again and exchanged a quick series of strikes with the female Jedi, their blades crashing together at least seven or eight times within the span of a second. Her dark eyes burned with fury at seeing her comrades slain on the floor, and Vader actually smiled at this.

"That's it," he told the young woman. "Use your anger. Your emotions make you stronger."

Unlike the other two, the female Jedi said nothing, struggling to keep her calm as Vader pressed his advantage. He forced her back, making her leap over the body of her fellow student to avoid tripping. Surprising both Vader and Tyraj, she spread her fingers and called the other young Jedi's lightsaber into her hand with the Force, igniting it as soon as the hilt touched her palm.

Breathing deeply, the female Jedi whirled her sabers through a complicated pattern of strikes, actually forcing Lord Vader to take a step back under the fury of her assault. Smiling grimly, Vader moved his lightsaber into the exact positions necessary to deflect the strikes of both glowing blades wielded by his opponent, not seeming even slightly at a disadvantage.

Tyraj could only watch the battle, and much as he would have liked to have aided his commander in the fight, he could not. The Jedi's deflected bolt had struck him in his dominant arm, and he was having trouble focusing over the searing pain in his shoulder.

Quickly, Lord Vader leaped in a sudden somersault right over the female Jedi's head, moving with the speed and agility of a man half his age. She whipped her green blade around to deflect his first strike as she spun to meet him, then crossed her blades to hold back a powerful two-handed overhand slice. This proved to be a mistake, as Lord Vader pressed down with his greater height and strength, forcing the Jedi to hold her position to keep his scarlet blade away from her neck.

Finally, Tyraj succeeded in grabbing his blaster with his good arm. Trying to block out the pain, he raised the blaster rifle to point at the Jedi's back, drawing Lord Vader's attention.

The Sith Master nodded slightly, pushing forward suddenly. The Jedi redoubled her efforts to keep Lord Vader away, and thus left herself wide open for Tyraj's shot. Trooper TK-421's thoughts locked into the precise patterns drilled into him at the academy, and he sighted down the barrel momentarily before squeezing the trigger.

With Lord Vader holding her attention from the front, the Jedi had no chance. The blaster bolt struck true, and her lightsabers dropped from suddenly nerveless fingers as she slumped to the deck. Darth Vader deactivated his own saber, and the ruby blade withdrew into the black hilt in his gloved fist.

At an idle gesture, the other three lightsabers in the hallway flew into the Sith Master's hand, and he tucked them into his belt beneath his cloak as he moved toward Tyraj. He clipped his own lightsaber to his belt as he stopped before the injured stormtrooper, and he looked down at Tyraj with a concerned expression.

"Your actions were commendable, trooper," he said, a hint of respect in his tone. "I will see to it you are rewarded. Do you require medical assistance?"

TK-421 shook his helmeted head, gritting his teeth against the pain as he slowly dragged himself to his feet. "No, sir!" he said, attempting to ignore his burning shoulder.

"Go back to the _Executor_ and get that wound looked at," Lord Vader said. "I can finish searching this section myself. I doubt there are any more Jedi aboard, but if there are, I can handle them."

"No doubt, sir," Tyraj said, gesturing with his blaster at the three Jedi lying around them.

Vader's mouth quirked in an almost-smirk as he nodded once and moved off, his cloak billowing out behind him. Tyraj watched him go, pride swelling in his heart to serve with such a man. Pressing a gloved hand to his shoulder, the wounded trooper set off back in the direction of the boarding hatch.

* * *

"He's here. We must be cautious."

Luke Skywalker nodded, looking over at his Jedi Master. Obi-Wan Kenobi glanced over at his student with a grave expression, hands folded within the sleeves of his brown robe. The desolate, rocky landscape of Tatooine spread out around them, a cloudless blue sky above showing the orbiting starships in stark detail.

"Can he sense us from that far up?" Luke asked, gesturing to the menacing, dagger-like shape of the Super Star Destroyer _Executor_, Darth Vader's flagship. It was tiny, barely visible from here, but to be readily recognizable as a Star Destroyer even at altitude, it had to be massive indeed.

"Darth Vader is a Sith Master," Obi-Wan replied, "and the most powerful Force-Sensitive ever to have existed. We will be very fortunate indeed if he does not already know we are here."

The younger Jedi nodded gravely, reaching up to brush some of his sandy blond hair out of his eyes. To maintain their disguise, Luke's hair was not cut in the traditional Padawan style, one of the many breaks from tradition in his training. Obi-Wan had attempted to train Luke as closely as he could in the ways of the destroyed Jedi Order, but the Jedi Master had had to sacrifice some things out of necessity.

Off in the distance, out of sight the Tusken Raiders could be heard howling at each other. It was unlikely the Sand People knew the two Jedi were here, but Luke's hand moving closer to his lightsaber anyway, in preparation.

"Patience," Obi-Wan said, his expression still serious beneath his silver beard. "Do not draw upon the Force, Luke, or he will sense it."

He saw his pupil hide a smile. It was a private joke between them that 'patience' had to be Obi-Wan's favorite word, since he used it so often.

The humor faded as the young man continued to watch the massive shape of the _Executor_ in the sky above, knowing what it contained.

"I wish you'd been able to kill him, Master," Luke said. "The galaxy would be a better place."

The two of them had often discussed the duel on Mustafar between master and student, the epic confrontation that had nearly cost the Jedi Master his life at the hands of a man he once considered a brother. Darth Vader had turned on his master, his order, and even his own wife, lost in the clutches of the Dark Side. And now he ruled the galaxy, spreading the Empire further with each passing year.

"If Anakin had died at Mustafar," Obi-Wan reminded his apprentice, "Palpatine would be the Emperor, not him. Vader is a tyrant, but his evil does not even approach the level of his Sith Master. The galaxy would be a much darker place under the fist of Palpatine, I assure you."

"It's hard to imagine," Luke said bitterly.

Obi-Wan laid a gentle hand on Luke's shoulder. "I know it is difficult for you," he said. "But Anakin was once a good man. Palpatine twisted him into what he is now. Even in the throes of the Dark Side, Anakin still holds himself to a standard of justice, perverted though it may be. He is at least not cruel for cruelty's sake. It took me a long time to see the depth of Palpatine's schemes, but I know enough about him to know that Anakin makes a better Emperor than his master would have."

Luke grimaced. "Please don't call him 'Anakin', Master. As far as I'm concerned, Anakin Skywalker died in the Purges. That man is just a monster with my father's face."

Obi-Wan frowned. They'd had this discussion before, and while it disturbed him that Luke was so willing to consider his father an enemy, he supposed it did make things easier. Only Luke was powerful enough with the Force to challenge the Emperor.

He'd meant to hide Luke's parentage from the boy, to spare him the suffering of having to challenge his own father, but since Darth Vader was quite obviously Anakin Skywalker, his face the most famous in the galaxy, there was no keeping this from Luke. He'd sensed that Obi-Wan was hiding something from him the first time he'd questioned the Jedi Master about where he'd come from, and Obi-Wan had not been able to bring himself to lie to the boy, no matter how terrible the truth.

So, since there was no other alternative, and because Luke had insisted on it, he'd begun training the boy in the ways of the Jedi, doing his best to keep the two of them from attracting Vader's attention. Since the Sith Master was busy ruling his empire and hunting down the other remaining Jedi, they'd managed to escape his notice for at least this long. This was the closest they'd ever been to the Sith Master in all that time, however, and Obi-Wan feared that his former student would be able to sense them, anyway.

Obi-Wan looked over at the boy, seeing Anakin in his face, his stance, even hearing him in Luke's voice. But he also saw the boy's mother, especially when Luke was thoughtful or happy.

He patted his apprentice's shoulder comfortingly. "Your mother thought there was still good in him, Luke," Obi-Wan said.

Luke frowned. "Can we not talk about this, Ben?" he said, using his nickname for his master, born from his childish inability to pronounce Obi-Wan's name when the Jedi Master first began his training. Lately, he only used the nickname when he was being serious.

Obi-Wan nodded. "Very well," he said. "Perhaps we can instead discuss what that is." He pointed at a trail of fire streaking across the sky.

Luke brought up a set of macrobinoculars, peering at the leading edge of the streak of flame. "I'd say it's an escape pod, Master," he said, pointing at it himself. "It looks like it's going to land a few kilometers from here." He lowered the binoculars and looked over at his teacher. "Should we go check it out?"

The Jedi Master nodded. "Let's go."

* * *

"You couldn't have picked a worse spot to land if you'd been trying, could you?"

The blue and white barrel-shaped astromech R2-D2 issued an indignant series of bleeps and twitters at his companion, a golden human-shaped droid whose designation was C-3PO.

"I most certainly could have done better, if I'd had the programming to operate these sorts of things," C-3PO said, gesturing behind the two droids at the wreckage of their escape pod. Around them on all sides was a seemingly endless expanse of sand, which harshly reflected the light of the double suns back at them from a clear blue sky.

Artoo bleeped an insulting series of phrases back at him.

Threepio responded by kicking Artoo as hard as his servomotors could manage, a rather useless gesture considering he was only a protocol droid. "You take that back!" he exclaimed in his tinny, prissy voice. "I'll not tolerate that sort of language from you!"

Artoo swiveled his domed head back and forth, looking past his companion to an approaching object. He tweeted a half-hearted apology, indicating the object to Threepio.

The golden droid turned to look, leaning forward as if that would help him get a better view. "Whatever it is, it's approaching quite rapidly," he said. He looked down at Artoo. "I do hope it isn't hostile."

Artoo bleeped sarcastically.

"Don't be stupid," Threepio responded. "There aren't any predators here that eat droids." He looked back down at Artoo nervously. "Are there?"

The astromech burbled with electronic laughter as he focused his sensors on the approaching object, which now reflected the sun from something metal or transparisteel, making it likely a transport of some kind. He indicated this to Threepio.

"Oh, thank the Maker!" Threepio exclaimed. "We're saved!" He began waving his arms at the oncoming vehicle. "Help! Help!" he shouted, boosting the volume of his voice. "Over here!"

Moving rapidly over the sand, a landspeeder suddenly swerved to a halt only meters from the two droids, spinning a full ninety degrees from its original heading as it came to a stop. A young human male jumped from the speeder, dressed in simple tan and white clothes of the kind worn by most Tatooine settlers. Artoo recognized the style from his last visit to this planet more than twenty years ago. Another thing he recognized was the lightsaber hanging from the young man's belt.

Behind him came an older human man, wearing the same kind of clothing but in a looser style, a long brown robe over his clothes. A lightsaber hung from his belt, as well. If droids could be startled, R2-D2 was at that moment, as he recognized the older man. As the older man said something in an admonishing tone to the younger human, Artoo suddenly launched into an excited series of twitters and beeps, rocking back and forth on his stumpy legs.

"Calm down, Artoo," Threepio said, turning to his counterpart. "What are you talking about?"

Artoo bleeped excitedly, swiveling his dome between Threepio and the humans.

Threepio looked down at him incredulously. "How could you possibly recognize either of these men? We've never been to this planet before!"

"Hello there," the older human said politely. "What seems to be the trouble?"

"Thank you for stopping, sir," Threepio said. "My counterpart and I crashed onto this planet, and we feared we might never be rescued."

Artoo paused in his excitement to burble ridicule at his companion.

Threepio waved at Artoo to be quiet. "It doesn't matter how long we were here!" he snapped. "We're saved!"

"We saw your pod crash," the younger human said. "I'm Luke, and this is Ben."

Threepio shifted a few steps closer to the two humans through the sand. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Master Luke," the protocol droid said. "We are very grateful to you."

Artoo whistled excitedly at the older human.

"Oh, be quiet, Artoo," Threepio said. "He said his name was Ben, not 'Obi-Wan'. Enough of your nonsense." He turned back to the two humans. "I'm sorry for my companion. His circuits have been cooked by the suns, I'm afraid."

Artoo indignantly hooted that Threepio was the one with cooked circuits before he waddled closer on his stumpy legs through the slippery sand.

He could tell Obi-Wan recognized him now, and the younger human, Luke, peered curiously at him from beside the older man.

"How does this droid know you, Master?" he asked, hooking his thumbs in his pockets.

Obi-Wan stroked his silver beard thoughtfully. "We'll take them back to the house," he said. "I suspect this is not a coincidence."

* * *

Darth Vader stalked angrily through the corridors of the _Executor_, irritated that Kenobi had not been among the Jedi hiding aboard the _Tantive IV_. He'd been hoping to destroy his old master today, the man who'd taken everything from him, turned his beloved Padmé against him, and stranded him on Mustafar, leaving him alone on that hellish world for nearly a day until Palpatine finally arrived.

His quest was not over until Obi-Wan died at his hand. He would not stop until he had eradicated the old Jedi Order for what they'd done to him; they'd denied him what he deserved and taken away the one thing that made him truly happy.

Vader glared a low-ranking officer out of his way, shoving him aside with the Force when he didn't move fast enough. He didn't stop until he was finally in his quarters, the only permanent home he maintained.

Once inside, Darth Vader withdrew the three lightsabers he'd collected today and added them to the collection adorning one entire wall of the main room, a wide, square chamber decorated mainly in black. Nearly three dozen lightsabers already sat in hooks on the wall, dating all the way back to Dooku's, though there was room for several more.

_Especially one_, the man who had once been Anakin Skywalker thought to himself. He stripped the glove off his natural hand and ran his fingers through his military-short hair, remembering a time when he'd worn it long and tousled.

_I was just a boy then,_ he thought. _Young and stupid._

He angrily pushed aside the memories that tried to surface along with those thoughts, not wanting to think about that time just now. Instead, he sat down in the large throne-like chair that dominated the opposite wall from his lightsaber collection and stared at the three newest acquisitions.

The two men were dead, but the young woman had somehow managed to survive the blaster shot that had dropped her. Sensing her potential, Vader had ordered her to be patched up in the infirmary and kept heavily sedated until such time as he could begin her training. It would take time to purge whatever nonsense her Jedi Master had filled her head with, but someone of her talents could be a great asset.

Suddenly, Vader's private comm beeped in a distinctive pattern. Only one person had this particular access code, so the Sith Master knew who was calling him instantly.

_Speaking of assets,_ he thought as he touched the button to acknowledge the transmission. "What is it?" he demanded of the person on the other end.

Slowly, a human shape flickered into view, cast a bluish shade by the holoprojector. A human man in his late twenties soon became discernible, his dark hair shorn close to his skull and his eyes piercing even through the distortion of the transmission. His clothes were tight-fitting and dark, and a lightsaber hung from his belt. As soon as his image was clear, the man bowed, dropping to one knee.

_"I have news, my Master,_" he said, looking up to meet Vader's gaze.

"Rise," Vader said. "I sense you have had a victory."

The Starkiller nodded, crossing his arms as he stood. _"I have, Master. Shaak Ti is no more. I killed her this morning."_

"Well done, my apprentice," Vader said. "Return to Coruscant and make sure the bureaucrats are doing as they should. I will be a few more days on my own mission."

The Starkiller, Darth Nova, nodded once. _"Did you find Organa, Master?"_ he asked.

Darth Vader also nodded once. "She was indeed harboring Jedi, as your intelligence indicated. I killed two of them, and may be able to convert the third."

Darth Nova smiled grimly. "_Very good, my Master. I will report again when I reach Coruscant._"

Vader inclined his head in acknowledgment, then cut the transmission. Then, with an adjustment to the controls, he called the _Executor_'s bridge and ordered the massive ship to set course for Alderaan. The Organas had been a thorn in his side long enough. Perhaps a demonstration was in order…

* * *

Leia Organa glared at the Imperial medic as he none-too-gently shoved a needle in her arm and collected a blood sample.

"What are you doing," she demanded, "making sure I'm good and healthy before you kill me?"

"What Lord Vader does with you is his business," the white-coated medic said. "Your health is mine." He looked down his rather large nose at her. "I am simply checking your blood for infections."

Leia arched an eyebrow at the way he said 'infections', as if somehow being a suspected Rebel was a disease. As the medic applied a small bandage to her arm where he had jabbed it with the needle, the Alderaanian princess pulled her sleeve back down and looked around the rest of the infirmary.

On the other side of the long, clinical green room sat a stormtrooper being treated for a blaster wound in his shoulder. He'd removed his chest armor, and his helmet sat at the foot of the bed, looking like some kind of insectoid skull. His dark eyes glared at her, as if he was offended to be treated in the same infirmary as a Rebel. The harsh fluorescent glowpanels reflected off his short dark hair, which he'd slicked back with some kind of oil.

_Typical Imperial jarhead_, Leia thought to herself. _He_ _probably thinks Vader's just as much a hero now as he was in the Clone Wars._

Leia thought back to her brief conversation with the Emperor. How had the Anakin Skywalker she'd heard stories of turned into that hard, grim man? It was hard to believe they were the same person. But, there was no mistaking the face. It was the same as in the old news reports and documentaries, only twenty years older.

The princess watched as the medic ran her blood sample through one of his beeping machines, then looked past him to the far end of the infirmary, where a young woman lay shackled to a bed on her stomach, a large bacta patch on her back. Her head was turned away, but Leia recognized one of the Jedi who'd been aboard _Tantive IV_ as a passenger on the way to the secret Rebel base. The only reason they'd stopped at the remote planet of Tatooine was to pick up another Jedi who waited in exile.

Leia thought a silent apology at the young Jedi, sorry she'd been unable to keep her out of the Empire's clutches. She only hoped Artoo and Threepio had managed to find the old Jedi general on the planet below. Artoo was packed with all the data on the Rebellion Leia had had aboard her ship, and she hoped General Kenobi would be able to use it to find the Rebels, in hiding on the distant moon of Yavin. The Rebellion desperately needed a Jedi, especially one of Obi-Wan Kenobi's caliber.

She glanced over at the stormtrooper to see that he was still glaring turbolasers at her, and she thought something at him that would have made her mother blush. Knowing Imperial troops, he was probably thinking a variation of the same thing back at her.

The medic punched a final series of buttons on his console and withdrew the vial of blood. He dropped it into a medical waste container as if disposing of a dead rodent, glancing at her momentarily before gesturing to the stormtroopers who stood guard on her other side.

"Take her to her cell," he said.

Leia stood before the trooper could grab her arm, glaring at him haughtily. As if she was going to let some Imperial grunt touch her! She allowed the trooper's companion to lock the cuffs back around her wrists and indignantly marched off, making the stormtroopers have to jog to keep up with her.

She smiled inwardly at her show of defiance, determined to make her captivity anything but easy for these brutes.

* * *

"Now, what's this about a message?" Obi-Wan asked the shorter of the two droids. The four of them sat in the main room of the old Jedi Master's humble abode in the Jundland Wastes, the bright light of the dual suns filtering in through the shades and scattering small beams of light throughout the well-worn room.

Luke sat on one of the chairs next to the protocol droid, who silently watched as his counterpart trundled up to a low table and leaned over to project a bluish holographic beam onto the flat surface.

An image of a beautiful young woman about Luke's age appeared on the table, dressed in a long white gown with her dark hair pulled up in two elaborate braids on either side of her head. Luke thought momentarily that he'd seen her somewhere before, since she seemed somewhat familiar to him, but he couldn't remember ever encountering her.

"_General Kenobi_," the image began, "_years ago you served the Old Republic and my father in the Clone Wars. Now we have need of your help again. I came to Tatooine to bring you out of your exile, but unfortunately, Lord Vader's flagship has captured my vessel and my mission has failed. I had aboard some of your fellow Jedi, hoping to offer them as well as you a safe haven from the clutches of the Empire while the Alliance builds up its forces. We are nearly ready to begin a major offensive campaign against Darth Vader and his fleet, but the Empire's forces are vigilant, and now is not the time to reveal our hidden assets_."

The young woman paused, looking somewhere off-camera before continuing. "_Lord Vader will board my vessel soon, and I fear he will take me prisoner and hunt down the Jedi I thought to keep away from him._" She straightened, looking at the camera with a pleading expression. "_Please, use the information contained in this Artoo unit to find your way to the rest of the Rebellion. We have desperate need of a general of your talents, Master Kenobi. You know the mind of Darth Vader, as well, and how he will react to our strategies. If anyone can help us overcome the tyranny of your former student, it is you. Help us, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You are our only hope._"

The sound of a blaster shot rang out from the image, and the young woman hastily leaned down and manipulated something out of sight. "_Go, Artoo!_" she said urgently, and the message ended suddenly.

"Who is she?" Luke asked, leaning forward with a concerned expression on his face.

"She is Princess Leia Organa of the Royal Family of Alderaan," C-3PO recited. "She sent us here, or more precisely, she sent Artoo, since I knew nothing of all this."

Obi-Wan frowned thoughtfully beneath his beard, his thoughts unreadable. He reached up and stroked the lower edge of his silver whiskers as he stared at the space where Princess Leia's image had been moments before.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Luke demanded of his master. "We have to go help her!" He gestured vaguely upwards, the direction of space. "If Darth Vader finds out she's a member of the Rebellion, he'll kill her!"

The Jedi Master nodded slowly. "I agree, my young apprentice. But, we must think this through first. We cannot simply fly up to the _Executor_ and storm our way through to the detention area; security aboard the Dark Lord's flagship will be so tight as to make such an idea foolish."

Luke leaned against the rough stone wall and drummed his fingers against it impatiently. "Well, there must be _something _we can do," he said, trying to think of something, anything they could do to help Leia. He'd never met her, and yet, he felt some sort of connection to the young woman. Perhaps the Force was telling him that she was important.

"We will go to Alderaan," Obi-Wan said finally. "Vader will bring her there so that he can make an example of her and her family. He knows that support for the Rebellion is growing, and he will try to head it off by showing what happens to those who go against him." He stood, his expression grave. "He'll declare them traitors and then formally strip them of their titles before publicly executing the entire Royal Family."

"How are we going to get to Alderaan?" Luke asked thoughtfully. "We don't even have a ship!"

Obi-Wan smiled in that slightly mischievous way of his. "That, young Luke," he said, "is a problem quickly solved. Mos Eisley spaceport will have one that will suit our needs, and a pilot to match."

Luke cocked a playful eyebrow. "The 'wretched hive of scum and villainy'?" he asked teasingly. "I thought you hated going there."

The Jedi Master smiled wryly. "Fortunately, this will make the last time." He turned and picked up his robe from where it lay on the back of his chair. "Gather your things, Luke," he said, shrugging into his robe. "We are leaving this planet behind us."

"Good riddance," Luke muttered to himself as he went off to his room.

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: This story is completely finished, and I will be posting one chapter a day if my schedule permits. Thank you for reading, and if you enjoy the story(or even if you don't), please leave a review. I'm always eager to improve my writing style. so if you have any tips, let me know.


	2. Divergence

**Two**  
(Divergence)

_Nineteen years ago_…

"It's over, Anakin. I have the high ground."

Obi-Wan Kenobi looked down at his former apprentice, a man he'd once called friend and brother. Where once he'd seen loyalty and friendship, he now saw only hatred in Anakin's fierce blue eyes, glaring up at him from the Sith Lord's perch atop a hovering platform in the midst of a river of fire.

Smoke hung in the sky over the hellish world of Mustafar, spewed there from the multitudinous volcanoes that dotted the small world's surface. The smoke was so thick that it blocked out the light from the system's sun, and the two men were lit only by their weapons and the molten rock flowing past them.

Darth Vader hefted his lightsaber, the same glowing blue blade he'd wielded countless times as Anakin Skywalker alongside his former friend and master. But never against him. Never before today. The two men were in the final phases of a vicious lightsaber duel that had raged across half the installation in which Vader had slaughtered the Separatist leadership only a few hours ago.

"You underestimate my power," the Sith snarled, glaring murderously up at Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan looked down at Anakin, his expression almost pleading. "Don't try it," he said, resignation in his tone.

He didn't want to kill Anakin, even hurt him, but he knew it had to be done. With Palpatine in control of the galaxy, Anakin was simply too powerful to let him live as a Sith Lord. Palpatine could cast the entire galaxy under a permanent pall of darkness with Anakin at his side.

Shouting furiously, Vader exploded into movement, leaping up in a Force-assisted jump that sent him somersaulting up the steep rocky hill, his trajectory angling over Obi-Wan's head. Obi-Wan saw him coming, prepared, then slashed with his lightsaber…

And _missed_.

Vader came down on the rocky hill above Obi-Wan, slashing with his lightsaber through a blisteringly fast series of strikes. The Jedi Master, exhausted from the long duel, moved his own shining blue blade in a defensive pattern, turning the Sith Lord's strikes aside.

Finally, Vader's boot slipped in some loose dirt, causing him to pause his attack for just a moment, and Obi-Wan took his chance. He did something he'd never done in a lightsaber duel before: he ran.

Obi-Wan jumped up the hill in a Force-leap of his own, putting six meters between himself and Anakin. His boots slipping in the loose, rocky dirt, the Jedi Master scrambled away from his opponent, sensing him in hot pursuit just behind.

Obi-Wan knew he could not win this fight now. To continue fighting Anakin here would mean only death; Anakin was simply too powerful. His one chance to stop his former pupil had somehow gone wrong, and now Anakin had regained his footing, fueled by the Dark Side as he chased after his old master.

Leaping across a three-meter-wide stream of lava, Obi-Wan hurled a loose rock at Vader with the Force, continuing on with his sprint. Vader smashed the rock aside with his lightsaber and somersaulted over the lava stream, brandishing his weapon as he picked up speed.

Obi-Wan increased speed as well, ignoring the protestations of his overworked muscles. His only chance now was to get Padmé and the child away from Anakin, away from the Sith he'd become. The prospect of a child with Anakin's power being raised by Sith was too terrible to imagine.

The Jedi Master dodged a rock which careened past his head, then another and another, forcing him to leap ever more acrobatically to avoid the missiles Vader hurled at him as he strained to catch up.

_There!_ Obi-Wan spotted a familiar-looking tower. Apparently, he and Vader had fought in a large circle, since he recognized the tower near the landing pad where they'd left Padmé and the starships. Gathering the Force, Obi-Wan shoved a large portion of the path behind him into one of the many running streams of lava.

The gap created was too wide even for Vader to attempt, and so Obi-Wan gained precious seconds as the Sith Lord was forced to find an alternate route. Sprinting as fast as he dared over the treacherous terrain, Obi-Wan pushed for the landing pad, determined to arrive before Vader. He had to get Padmé away from this hellish place, somewhere where she could recover from whatever her husband had done to her.

The Jedi Master risked a glance behind to see Anakin still more than a dozen meters behind, his bright blue lightsaber making him easy to spot. Obi-Wan pushed himself harder._ Just a little farther. Just a little farther. Just a little…_

Grunting with exertion, Obi-Wan leaped the last few meters and grabbed hold of a protrusion on the side of the walkway leading to the landing pad. As soon as he had pulled himself up, he used the Force to shove over the rock from which he had leaped, creating another obstacle for Vader.

Legs and lungs burning, Obi-Wan sprinted along the walkway toward the silver spaceship that sat with hatch open and ramp lowered on the landing pad. Waiting there were C-3PO and R2-D2, Padmé's protocol droid and Anakin's astromech.

"We've already brought Mistress Padmé aboard," Threepio called to him. "Hurry, Master Obi-Wan!"

The Jedi Master intended to do just that, but suddenly, the Force screamed in alarm, making his senses prickle with sudden danger. He knew without looking that Vader had somehow made it up here more quickly than he'd anticipated.

Spying Anakin's yellow starfighter waiting next to Padmé's ship, Obi-Wan shouted ahead. "Go!" he yelled, waving his left hand at the protocol droid.

He knew Artoo was perfectly capable of flying Padmé's ship, so all he had to do was stall Vader long enough to take his fighter, and the Sith would be stranded here while they escaped.

Stopping suddenly, Obi-Wan spun in place, ignited his lightsaber and brought the blade up just in time to intercept a powerful overhand slash from Vader. He and the man who had once been Anakin locked eyes, and Obi-Wan saw with surprise and horror that his former student's eyes had turned from clear blue to red-rimmed yellow, showing that Anakin was now completely in the thrall of the Dark Side.

Vader screamed in inarticulate fury, swinging wildly with his lightsaber in a terrifying display of anger. The walkway actually buckled from the strength of Vader's rage, his anger manifesting itself through involuntary concussive blasts.

Obi-Wan narrowly managed to avoid being caught in Vader's spasmodic Force explosions, but he did take advantage of the damage they were doing to the walkway. Waiting for the opportune moment, Obi-Wan suddenly ducked one of Vader's swings and threw down a concussive blast of his own. The structural integrity of the metal walkway could not hold with the numerous other holes Vader had blasted in it, and as soon as the Sith Lord stepped on the weak spot, it gave way and sent him right through with a sudden, surprised yell.

The bright spot of lava below was readily visible through the hole Vader had left, and Obi-Wan cautiously stepped forward to look, mindful that he had not sensed Vader fall in.

Vader glared hatefully up at him from the hole, holding on with both hands to a narrow metal bar that was part of the walkway's understructure as his feet swung free below him.

"I'm sorry, Anakin!" Obi-Wan called down to his former student. To see him here like this, so consumed by rage, hurt the Jedi Master deeply. "I have failed you."

Vader's only reply was an angry scream that was half roar, a terrifying, almost animal sound.

"You were my brother, Anakin!" Obi-Wan called down, sorrowful. "And I loved you. I am sorry it had to come to this."

"I hate you!" Vader shrieked up at him, legs pumping as he strained to find a foothold.

Resigned, Obi-Wan took one last look at his former friend, struggling below, only a few meters above the lava stream with such hate and rage in his once-gentle eyes. Anakin was dead, he knew, consumed by Darth Vader, just as Yoda had said. It was time to let him go.

But, Obi-Wan could not bring himself to knock from his perch the man who'd once been his friend, the closest thing he'd ever had to a son, so he simply turned and walked away instead, Vader's screams of rage echoing in his ears.

Trying to calm himself, Obi-Wan Kenobi sat down in Anakin's starfighter and powered up the engines, closing the cockpit. With a last deep breath, he raised the fighter from the landing pad and flew off, leaving the Sith alone with his hate and fear and rage.

* * *

This is how it feels to be Anakin Skywalker right now:

You have done things, horrible things you never thought yourself capable of doing, all in the hopes of finding a way to save the one you love, the one you'd do anything to keep from suffering in any way. But now, due to your own hatred and fear and anger, you've cost yourself the one thing in all the universe that ever made you truly happy.

Flush with your own dark emotions, you've seen duplicity and betrayal in the one you love, and you've killed her for it, her and your child, the precious miracle you made with the one person who ever truly understood you, who loved you and never tried to hold you back from being who you were.

You realize, hanging helplessly above certain death, that you've put yourself in a hell of your own making. It's all your own fault, your own stupid fault for trusting that withered old man. He never loved you, never cared about you at all except as a pawn in his own insidious schemes. You are a tool to him, nothing more; the product of a decades-long scheme and deceptions beyond number. He never cared for you in any way. All his kind words, all his little bits of wisdom, they were all lies, lies to play upon your own doubts and fears. He knew just what to say, just what to tell you to convince you that the only way to save the one you love from the death you saw coming was to join him and help him further his own greedy ends.

And now, because you trusted him, you've lost her. You have killed or alienated every friend you've ever had, and now you are all alone, hanging above a river of fire with no one to come and help you.

You are going to die.

You are going to die alone on this hellish little world, consumed by flame, a victim of your own naiveté and stupidity. If only you could do it again, you think, feeling your fingers start to lose their grip, if only you could go back and stop yourself from betraying your entire way of life for one selfish goal.

But you can't. There is no going back, no matter how much you might wish it. Time's river flows in only one direction, and you cannot fight the current, not even with all your power.

Or could you? You've been told time and again that you are the most powerful Jedi ever to live, the one with the greatest command of the Force in all of time. Are there limits to your powers? The Jedi told you so, but what do they know? They are as children before you; their powers pale in comparison to your own.

There _must _be a way to fix this. There _must_ be, you tell yourself, straining to keep your grip on the only thing keeping you from plunging to your death. The Jedi can't possibly know everything about the Force; they stayed away from its most powerful aspect. Both sides of the Force are the answer. Both the dark and the light.

You hold both within yourself; you've trained more than half your life in the light, but you've always fought the darkness, believing it to be an evil thing, a thing to be avoided. But there must be a balance, and at the balance, you'll find what you seek.

That is what you tell yourself, hoping it to be true, as you struggle not to die.

* * *

Long, interminable hours later, nearly unbearable hours full of struggle and exertion, Darth Vader finally noticed a strange sound: the unmistakable whine of spaceship engines. Over the hours, he'd managed to hoist himself up a little more, so that he was slightly closer to the top of the walkway and that much closer to survival.

A short time after the spaceship engines died down, Vader heard booted feet stomping in rhythm approaching him, accompanied by a dark presence in the Force he knew only too well, despite having known its true extent only briefly.

He felt his lip curl in disgust. The old man was unwilling to let his precious weapon get away, his careful investment. Vader was half tempted to let go right then just so he could deny the miserable old bastard his prize.

But no, he remembered with a slow grin, there was another way. Carefully hiding these thoughts from his master, Vader projected instead hopefulness for Palpatine to sense, relief at the sound of him approaching.

"There he is!" the withered, irritating voice said. "He's still alive."

"Master?" Vader called hopefully, keeping impenetrable shields around his inner core. "Master, help me!"

"I am here, Lord Vader!" Palpatine called back down, unwittingly standing in the exact spot another man who'd once been Vader's master had stood, long hours ago.

The helmeted heads of clone troopers appeared around Palpatine's hooded visage, and one of them lowered a cable, sending it down with typical efficiency perfectly within Vader's grasp. He seized the cable with a relief not entirely faked, holding on tight as the clones hauled him up.

Once he was back on solid metal again, Vader sprang his trap, carefully concocted and considered over hours of hanging above the lava river. A curious, clinical detachment had come over Vader during that time, wiping away all his sorrow and anger over losing Padmé, enabling him to think clearly enough to formulate his plan.

Extending a hand, Vader called his lightsaber to himself from where it had fallen. Sidious suspected nothing, looking up at the taller, younger Sith with a hideous mockery of a paternal expression.

"You are safe, Lord Vader," he said.

"You aren't," Vader replied mildly.

Sidious looked at him curiously, too trusting in his new, powerful apprentice to realize what was happening. "What are you doing?" he demanded.

Darth Vader allowed a cruel smile to play across his lips. "Just following the ways of the Sith… _Master_." He hissed the last word out nastily, reveling in the sudden widening of Palpatine's reptilian yellow eyes.

Before the newly crowned Emperor could say a word, Vader raised his hand and ignited his lightsaber, sending its beam of blue light spearing through Palpatine's heart. The Dark Lord of the Sith died, having time only to regard his treacherous apprentice with a shocked expression; the master of predicting the future and manipulating the outcome truly hadn't seen this coming.

Vader had already yanked his lightsaber free of his _second_ former master's chest before the clone troopers could even get their rifles up. He spun in a quick circle, dropping several of them to the walkway in multiple pieces. The one remaining trooper he seized with the Force, breaking his neck quickly and tossing him aside.

He grinned maliciously to himself in satisfaction. None of them had been able to get a message off to the ship in orbit. No clones had been left behind at the shuttle; a quick probe of the Force confirmed this. Vader was alone with a pile of corpses for the second time that day.

Deactivating his lightsaber, Vader walked over to where he'd left the body of Emperor Palpatine. He confirmed through a careful probe of the Force that Darth Sidious was really dead, then delivered a vicious kick to the corpse's side.

"You _told_ me we'd be able to _save_ her," he snarled, delivering another kick with each stressed word. "She's _dead_, and so is our _child_, and it's because of _YOU!_" He moved back a pace, then moved forward and kicked Palpatine's body so hard it rolled over, the shocked expression frozen on its deformed features.

Darth Vader narrowly managed to restrain himself from igniting his lightsaber and hacking the corpse to pieces, reminding himself that he needed the old man for one last task. Fitting that he would become a tool in a masterful scheme, just as he had tried to make Vader. Perhaps the old wretch's deviousness had rubbed off on him during their rather brief collaboration.

Reaching down, Vader grabbed the corpse by the collar and dragged it behind him as he stalked toward the shuttle Palpatine in which and his guards had arrived. He tossed the all-too-briefly-reigning Emperor inside like a sack of waste, leaving him sprawled in a heap in the rear compartment as Vader made his way into the cockpit.

Pausing to arrange his features into the appropriate measure of anger and desperation, not difficult considering all that had happened to him today, Vader activated the comm, opening a channel to the warship in orbit.

"Yes, sir?" the clone comm officer answered, looking back at him from the small screen.

"Open the hangar!" Vader shouted into the pickup. "The Emperor's been attacked by a Jedi, and I'm bringing him back aboard! Make sure a full medical team is waiting for us!"

"Yes, sir!" the clone shouted back, already scrambling off to relay Vader's shocking news even before he cut the connection.

Vader yanked the controls of the shuttle up and flew like he was in a hurry for the orbiting ship, allowing the real hurt and sorrow he'd experienced today to come up to the surface while he was alone with his thoughts during the brief flight up from the planet.

He was nearly overwhelmed as the look in Padmé's eyes when he attacked her floated in front of him suddenly, that heart-wrenching look of utter hurt in those big, dark eyes, the eyes he'd fallen in love with, as if she was so shocked that the man she loved could do such a thing that she didn't quite believe it was happening.

Vader, Anakin again for just a brief moment, smashed his cybernetic arm into the console next to him, leaving a deep dent as he screamed in frustration and sorrow.

He blinked away sudden tears as he realized that he was nearing the warship. Struggling mightily to regain control of himself, Anakin felt his thoughts harden into that crystal clarity again, the wheels turning in his mind that would allow him to see his plan through to fruition. He _would_ find a way, he swore to himself. It didn't matter if it took him the rest of his life; he would find some way to get Padmé back, to undo what he'd done.

Now fully Darth Vader again, the Sith Lord careened the shuttle into the hangar and set it down haphazardly in the middle of the bay, rushing back in an artificial panic to open the shuttle.

"Quickly!" he roared at the clone medics, who scuttled in to grab Palpatine's corpse, checking him over as they slid a stretcher under the body.

They poked at the lightsaber wound, pulling the fabric of his robe away from the perfectly circular hole that extended all the way through the late Emperor's body. Murmuring to one another, they rushed the 'patient' up to the doors of the hangar, sprinting as fast as they could to the warship's infirmary.

Vader found it supremely difficult to keep a concerned expression on his face as he jogged along behind the stretcher, knowing he had to keep up the façade for his plan to have any chance of working. The pain leaking through from his swirling emotions was enough, and as the gray corridors of the ship flashed by, Vader had to grit his teeth and focus furiously on the task at hand to keep from being overwhelmed.

The next few minutes passed in a blur as the clones finally reached the infirmary and more doctors and medics rushed over to check the Emperor. Anakin saw only his wife, thinking she should be here in that old wretch's place, that these doctors might be able to do something to save her, but he knew in that moment with a dreadful certainty that she was dead. A doctor demanded that Vader tell him what had happened, and the Sith shoved him across the infirmary with bruising force, impatiently gesturing to the Emperor's body with one hand at the others.

He was rapidly losing control, and he knew he had to get out of there soon. Luckily, the clones and other personnel took it as concern for the Emperor, and left him alone.

Finally, a doctor approached. "I'm sorry, General Skywalker," he said sorrowfully. "He's gone. There's nothing we could do; he was dead before he got here."

Vader choked back a sob that had nothing whatsoever to do with the news he'd just received, pushing his emotion down beneath a thick layer of control.

"I… understand," he managed to croak out. "Give me a few minutes."

The doctor nodded sympathetically. "Of course, General."

Vader rushed out of the infirmary, in search of the first available empty room. When he found one, he ducked into it, clenched his fists at his sides, and finally let his grief out, screaming loud and long in a howl that expressed all his rage and pain, his regret and his knowledge that he could never take back what he had done. He was told later that his scream could be heard three decks away and that the entire ship shook for a full five minutes, nearly disrupting several critical systems and shattering viewports all over the warship.

Vader himself did not notice. Anakin Skywalker was too busy dying.

* * *

Light-years away, three people met to discuss what was to be done with the children that had just been born; it had turned out Padmé was carrying twins.

The two men regarded the other person, who could not properly be called a man, since nobody but he himself knew what he was, anyway, with equal parts exhaustion and resignation, trying to decide what to do.

The small green alien and one of the two men both felt the overwhelming anguish the man who was known as Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker broadcasted through the Force, wincing from the almost physical pain it caused.

In the infirmary, the two newborn children felt it as well and erupted with tears next to the still body of their mother. Despite the best efforts of the trained nurses, they would not quiet down for more than three hours afterwards, wailing at a pain they did not understand.

Back in the conference room, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Grand Master Yoda, and Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan eyed each other uneasily across the table. Senator Organa had aided Grand Master Yoda in escaping from Coruscant, and had picked up both Padmé's ship and Obi-Wan's starfighter with his _Tantive IV_ shortly after they had left Mustafar, narrowly avoiding detection by an incoming Imperial ship before jumping to hyperspace. He was just as much a part of this whole mess now as the two Jedi, and he knew everything about the odd situation of young Skywalker, either having learned it first-hand or figured it out from the day's events.

"What should we do?" Bail asked the two Jedi, leaning on the arm of his chair.

"Separated, they must be," said Yoda, looking over at Obi-Wan. "To keep them safe from their father and his master."

"My wife and I will take the girl," Bail offered. He shook his head slightly, the corners of his mouth quirking in a smile he didn't feel as he tried to seem reassuring to the Jedi. "We've always talked of adopting a baby girl." He looked between the two Jedi. "She will be loved with us."

"What of the boy?" Obi-Wan asked, hand supporting his chin. Bail thought he looked ready to fall over from exhaustion right then and there.

"To Tatooine, to his family take him," Yoda said.

Obi-Wan nodded. "I will take the boy and watch over him," he said.

"Until the time is right," said Yoda, "disappear we will."

Bail excused himself, headed off to check their course. Obi-Wan took the opportunity to bring up something that he had been reluctant to discuss in front of the Senator.

He turned to Yoda. "We know their father survived. If Vader is to have a prominent place in the new Empire, how will we keep the children's parentage a secret? If we are to train the children eventually, we will have no choice but to tell them who their father is. We won't be able to hide the fact that Anakin Skywalker is an enforcer for the Empire." Just saying the words made Obi-Wan feel a little sick.

"Do not lie," Yoda said. "If the boy asks, tell him you must. Only he and his sister will be powerful enough to challenge the Emperor and his servant, so make sure he will be ready."

"We should focus on training the boy?" Obi-Wan asked.

Yoda nodded. "It is too dangerous to train them both at once. Allow Leia to grow up on Alderaan, we will, and contact her when the time is right. Train Luke you must, as best you can, in the meantime." The diminutive Jedi looked up at Obi-Wan. "Help you I will, when I can," he said.

Obi-Wan nodded and made to leave, but Yoda held up a three-fingered hand. "A moment, Master Kenobi," he said. "In your solitude on Tatooine, training I have for you…"

* * *

Five days after the Emperor's death, Darth Vader formally assumed leadership of the fledgling Empire, declaring himself the new Emperor in a speech that was transmitted around the galaxy. As the galactically renowned Anakin Skywalker, he had the support of the public already, and the declaration went over fairly well. Despite the fact that the depth of Palpatine's schemes was truly horrifying to the former Jedi, Vader knew that what Palpatine had set in motion could not be stopped. All he could do was to try to keep the Empire under control, which would be difficult after the radical upheaval of the last two weeks. But, for the sake of the galaxy, it had to be done.

In a burst of uncharacteristic thoughtfulness and planning, Vader had outlined his plan in greater detail while a state funeral for Palpatine was organized and carried out. He himself had marched in the funeral procession, hood up to cover the fact that he couldn't quite maintain a sorrowful expression over Sidious' death. A full company of clone troopers had marched behind him, recalling his assault on the Jedi Temple.

Now, he stood in the center podium of the Galactic Senate, dressed in completely black robes to signify his change of allegiance. Around him in the expansive, dome-shaped chamber, the Senators who could be present for the emergency session sat in their seats, some of them sharing since several of the pods had been destroyed during Yoda's assassination attempt on Palpatine.

In the opening part of his speech, carefully worded by a speechwriter who had worked for Palpatine, Vader described what had happened at Mustafar, partially restating what he'd said at Palpatine's funeral. He changed the details at the end as before to say that Obi-Wan had been the one to kill Palpatine, unfortunately 'escaping despite my best efforts.' Since he was the only witness, the story could not be refuted, and most were willing to believe it, since Palpatine had spread a large amount of anti-Jedi propaganda during his brief reign as Emperor. Most damning was an audio recording taken from the Chancellor's office that plainly revealed that Master Windu and several others had attempted to arrest and then subsequently assassinate Palpatine before Vader had arrived to rescue him. Vader played this again during his speech, citing the Emperor's courage at resisting the Jedi plot to take over the Republic.

It sickened Vader to say it, as well as the other words in praise of the fallen Emperor he included in his speech, since he hated the old man almost as much if not more than Kenobi and the other Jedi. But, he managed to seem sincere, and while he knew he was no great orator, the message had a heavy impact from his simple wording and simmering emotion, still bubbling up despite his best efforts to keep it under control. The people didn't need to know who it was really for, so he was content to let them think he was still grief-stricken over Palpatine's death. It added sincerity to his message.

He further outlined Palpatine's 'grand efforts to bring greater stability to our troubled galaxy', explaining why the reorganizing of the Republic into the Empire was necessary. There was no way to stop this, so he'd had to go along with it anyway. He also did not hide the fact that Palpatine was a Sith Lord and so was he, spending a few minutes explaining that the Jedi had spent centuries spreading propaganda and 'persecuting' his order, who were truly the masters of the Force. He directly quoted from a conversation he'd had with Palpatine on the Sith, also drawing from the numerous chronicles and Sith artifacts Palpatine had had in his possession that he'd looked over, making up sympathetic details. Vader explained that Palpatine had guided him to the true path, surprising himself with how smooth a liar he was becoming. It almost seemed as if the Force was guiding him during his speech sometimes, putting particular emphasis on certain points to more easily convince the Senate that what he was telling them was true.

"And that is why," Vader said, looking directly into the HoloNet camera hovering a few meters in front of the podium, "with a heavy heart, I must take up the leadership of our glorious Empire. It is a tragedy that my master did not live to see his dream of a peaceful galaxy, but with your cooperation I will bring that dream to fruition. I will work with the Senate to make sure the transition is a peaceful one, and I will stick as closely as I can to Emperor Palpatine's plan to bring our civilization into a golden age. I hope I can count on your cooperation."

The Senate was quiet for several moments, then a few Senators began clapping. Who better than the Hero With No Fear to lead them through this tumultuous time, they thought. They were soon joined by more of their fellows, then a few more, until the entire gathered Senate rose to its feet and applauded their new Emperor, the noise echoing throughout the cavernous chamber.

Darth Vader smiled modestly, an expression he had to force. It had worked, he thought to himself. He did not know everything Palpatine had had planned for the galaxy, since the old wretch had been plotting and scheming this takeover for decades, but he did know was that it was up to him to pick up the pieces and try to make something of all this.

As he looked around at the cheering Senators, Vader reflected bitterly that things were indeed just as he'd told Padmé that fateful day; the galaxy was his, and he could make things the way he wanted them to be.

He only wished she was here to share it with him.

* * *

Once he was back in his office -which had formerly been Palpatine's- after a long round of interviews and further speeches on what his administration planned to do, Vader finally managed to get a few minutes to himself.

He slumped into the chair behind Palpatine's massive desk, spinning it to look out at the Coruscant skyline. He deactivated the red-lined office's lights, sitting there in the darkness as he watched the traffic flow past him. All those lives were now in his hands...

After several minutes, his holocomm and the image of one of Palpatine's minions -_his_ minion now, Vader thought amusedly- appeared, casting a blue glow over the office.

"What?" Vader growled before the Rodian even had a chance to speak, spinning his chair to face the desk.

_"My lord, we've received a priority message capsule delivered by a courier droid,_" the alien said in Huttese. "I_t is keyed to your voiceprint and DNA, my lord, so I do not know what it contains._" The alien bowed slightly. "_We have scanned it quite thoroughly. It contains nothing harmful._"

Vader glared at the Rodian. "Fine," he said finally. "Send it in."

A few minutes later, some low-level flunky showed up with the capsule in hand. It was small, about the size of a fist, and the young woman nervously made her way across the Chancellor's office with it held out in front of her.

Vader scowled balefully at her until she dropped it on the far edge of his desk and fled as quickly as decorum allowed. He knew he hadn't really done anything to inspire such fear, but as he caught a reflection of his expression in the desk as he rose from his chair to take the capsule, he thought to himself that he'd probably have left in a hurry, too.

He picked up the capsule and placed his organic thumb on the scanner on one side of the spherical object. A small screen flared to life above the scanner. _State your name_, a quick flash of letters said.

"Darth Vader," he answered automatically, since that was truly how he thought of himself now.

_Incorrect_, the screen said. Vader scowled at the capsule; he sensed Obi-Wan's presence on the thing now, and he briefly considered crushing it without listening to the message it contained. But, he was curious.

"Anakin Skywalker," he said between clenched teeth, practically snarling his former name.

_Correct_, the screen said. The device began whirring and clicking, so Vader set it back on his desk. After a few seconds, it split open, revealing a small holo-emitter. With a further click and a few short beeps, it flared to life, displaying the head and shoulders of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Vader reached out with the Force and deactivated all of the security monitors; no one but him had the right to hear this, whatever it was. Just looking at the face of his former mentor made the Sith seethe with anger, but he let the message play.

"_Anakin,_" Obi-Wan's image said, his expression resigned and sad, _"please listen to what I have to say. I will not try to sway you from the path you have chosen, because I know you will not listen to me. As I said on Mustafar, I am sorry it had to come to this, but you will have to live with what you've done."_

Vader scowled at the image, but let it continue.

"_Padmé is dead,_" Obi-Wan said sorrowfully. "_Your child died with her."_ He was silent for a few moments after this, looking directly into the camera and thus making eye contact with Vader.

Vader sighed tensely, knowing this already. He'd sensed it back on the warship, sensed his angel losing her grip on life. It didn't hurt any less to hear it again now, particularly coming from Obi-Wan.

"_I have arranged for her to return to her family,"_ Obi-Wan said. _"I have not told them what happened."_ He leaned forward slightly, his expression reproachful. _"I will leave that to you."_

Vader would never know if Obi-Wan had recorded anything after that; he seized the capsule with the Force and crushed it until nothing was left, his hatred for his old master burning even brighter now.

An aide had the misfortune to choose that moment to step inside the wide, expansive office, a datapad in his hand. Gripped by rage, Vader whirled to face the intruder and, without thinking, reflexively loosed a blast of purple-blue lightning from his organic hand, hurling the unlucky man back through the inner doors with enough force to shatter the glass.

Vader stopped, shocked at what he'd just done, but for some reason did not move to assist the aide, who lay in a heap among the shards of glass, bleeding on the carpet. The Sith sensed that the man was still alive, if barely, and his mind whirled, wondering what he should do.

He sensed the power conduit running beneath the floor of the office, up to the massive desk at one end of the room. Thinking quickly, he blasted an area near the fallen man with more Force Lightning, rupturing the conduit. He deflected the resultant discharge of energy away from the man with the Force, then punched the emergency button on the desk, summoning the guards that stood outside the door.

The two men, draped in red with bullet-shaped helmets covering their faces, hurried in, their staffs at the ready.

"The conduit overloaded," Vader lied, pointing at the scorched hole in the floor. "Get him to the medical center immediately."

"Are you all right, my lord?" one of them asked, his voiced filtered by the helmet.

Vader waved him off. "I'm fine. Get him to the medical center," he repeated.

The guards rushed to obey, leaving Vader behind in his office to think about what he'd just done. He shrugged; it was hardly the worst thing he'd done since accepting the Dark Side. He would have to work on the balance between the two sides of the Force to avoid outbursts like that in the future. He hardly wanted to become known as the sort of man who would kill someone for little or no reason.

His peace disturbed, Vader arranged for a few of the various bureaucrats Palpatine had ordered around to come up to his office. He knew next to nothing about politics, but he had the Force, and that would be enough.

He had an Empire to run.

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: Those who have read Matthew Stover's novelization of _Revenge of the Sith_ will recognize the inspiration for one section of this chapter, as well as some further influence. If you haven't read said novelization, I recommend you do so, since not only is it a good novel version of RotS, it's just a darned good book on its own. Chapter 3 will be up tomorrow.


	3. What a Piece of Junk!

**Three**  
(What a Piece of Junk!)

_Now (Nineteen years later)_

Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi walked down a short flight of steps into a cantina in Mos Eisley, a colorful place packed with a wide assortment of aliens, some more bizarre-looking than others. The rough stone walls, a tan color stained with assorted residue ranging from smoke to dried blood, curved up to the dome-like ceiling, hung with half-burned-out lights that kept parts of the seedy building in perpetual shadow. All in all, it was not a pleasant place, and Luke looked forward to leaving.

Obi-Wan moved off to begin asking around for a ship, so Luke took a seat at the bar, next to an Aqualish mercenary and an ugly, scarred human man. The Aqualish gave him a dirty look, but the young Jedi ignored him, gesturing to the bartender, a thick-set human man with greasy dark hair.

The bartender grunted as he set a mug in front of Luke, and the young Jedi nodded his acknowledgment. He eyed the mug suspiciously; whatever was inside had a powerful smell, though that might have just been the bartender.

He chanced a drink and attempted to smother a grimace at the taste; either the mug hadn't been washed in a while or the brew had a healthy dose of engine grease in it.

Suddenly, a rough hand shoved his arm. Luke looked over to see the Aqualish glowering drunkenly at him, grunting something in his native language. Luke stared at him in a way he hoped was intimidating, but by the alien's reaction, he knew he was unsuccessful.

"He doesn't like you," the scarred human said.

"I'm sorry," Luke said, raising his mug to his lips again.

The ugly human glowered at him almost as fiercely as his companion. "I don't like you either," he said, moving his hideously scarred face closer to Luke's.

"That's too bad," Luke replied. "I'll be careful." He looked over at the human, sending out a small tendril of Force energy. "So should you."

"So should I," the ugly human repeated in a monotone. He turned to his companion. "We should be careful."

The Aqualish burbled something in his language, sounding like he was gargling while being attacked by a pack of hounds. It was agreeable-sounding gargle/growling, though, and the two of them left in a Force-induced fog.

Obi-Wan walked over shortly afterwards, accompanied by a two-meter-tall Wookiee entirely covered in fur. The Jedi Master gestured back at the Wookiee. "Chewbacca here is first mate on a ship that might suit us," he said. "He'll take us to talk to her captain."

Luke set his mug down and rose from his stool, tossing a credit chit beside the mug. "Let's go," he said, adjusting the way his lightsaber hung on his belt.

The furry giant walked them back to a corner booth where a lean, dark-haired human man several years older than Luke, dressed in blue pants and a white shirt with a black vest over it, sat with a mug of something in front of him. His posture was relaxed, but Luke could tell the man was wound as tightly as a spring; he could be out of his chair, blaster in hand, in a split second.

The man leaned forward over the table, resting his hands on its metal surface as Luke and Obi-Wan sat down. He looked at the two Jedi as his enormous Wookiee companion sat down next to him, also looking over at them. Chewbacca growled something in his language to the dark-haired man, and the man nodded, looking back at the Jedi.

"I'm Han Solo, captain of the _Millennium Falcon_," he said. He glanced briefly at the Wookiee next to him before looking back at Luke and Obi-Wan. "Chewie tells me you're looking for passage to the Alderaan system?"

"That's right," Obi-Wan replied. "If it's a fast ship."

"Fast ship?" Solo appeared mildly insulted. "You've never heard of the _Millennium Falcon_?"

Obi-Wan appeared amused. "Should I have?"

Solo leaned across the table again, his expression boastful. "It's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs." He leaned back, grinning lazily. "She's fast enough for you, old man."

"Fast enough to beat the _Executor?_" Luke said quietly. "It's important we get to Alderaan before it does."

Han shrugged, drumming his fingers on the table a few times. "A Super Star Destroyer's built for firepower, kid, not speed. Even if she's already left, we'll get there hours before her." His expression became serious. "Why, you boys in some kind of trouble?"

Obi-Wan placed both hands on the table. "Let's just say we'd like to avoid any Imperial entanglements."

Han grinned, an expression at once derisive and cocky. "I've outrun Imperial ships before. Not the local bulk cruisers, mind you. I'm talking about the big Corellian ships, now." He took a long gulp of whatever was in the mug in front of him, looking over at them as he set it back down. "Of course, it can be tricky. It'll mean extra." He tapped the side of his mug with his fingers, his expression becoming abruptly businesslike. "Ten thousand, all in advance."

"Ten thousand!" Luke exclaimed, outraged. "We could almost buy our own ship for that!"

Han scoffed. "Yeah, but who's gonna fly it, kid? You?"

The young Jedi glared across the table at him. "You bet I could. I'm not such a bad pilot myself." He looked over at his master, starting to rise from the table. "Come on, we don't have to-"

The Jedi Master put a firm hand on his student's arm. "Sit down, Luke," Obi-Wan said patiently. He turned back to Han. "We haven't that much with us, but we can give you two thousand now, plus fifteen when we reach Alderaan."

The spacer's brows rose appreciatively. "Seventeen, huh?" He glanced over at Chewbacca, and the big Wookiee nodded once. Han shrugged. "All right, you got yourselves a ship. Docking bay ninety-four."

"Ninety-four," Obi-Wan repeated, nodding once. "We'll meet you there in an hour."

Han grinned. "I'll be there."

Obi-Wan nodded a farewell as the two Jedi got up from the table and made their way to the exit. Once they were back outside, Obi-Wan raised his hood against the harsh desert sunlight.

"You'll have to sell your speeder," the Jedi Master told him as they approached said vehicle, where R2-D2 and C-3PO were waiting.

"That's okay," Luke said, getting in. "I doubt I'll be coming back here too often." He started up the speeder and moved off down the narrow, dusty street, dodging droids and Jawas as they drove. He glanced over at his Jedi Master. "Just let me send a message to Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. They'll want to know what I'm doing."

Obi-Wan nodded silently; Luke hadn't lived with the Larses for years, but they were the closest thing to parents the young man had, and he still kept in contact with them. Obi-Wan thought it fortunate that Luke had had such a good couple to raise him before his Jedi training began in earnest.

Luke slowed to a stop near a public holocomm transmitter, and while he went off to say good-bye to his adoptive parents, Obi-Wan looked for someone who wouldn't cheat them too badly for the speeder.

* * *

Han Solo absently reached down to adjust his blaster's holster as he entered the _Millennium Falcon'_s docking bay. At a strange set of footsteps in front of him, he left his hand where it was and looked up.

In front of him, with his back pointedly to the smuggler, was the infamous bounty hunter Boba Fett. The hunter touched something on the _Falcon_'s hull with one gloved hand, his gauntlet bristling with weapons, and then slowly turned around to skewer Han with a cold stare from beneath his T-shaped visor.

Han did his best to retain a confident demeanor, trying to show Fett he wasn't afraid of him, despite the hunter's fearsome reputation.

_If Jabba's sent Fett,_ Han thought, _he must be serious. Damned Imps!_

"Going somewhere, Solo?" Fett said casually, one hand on the blaster rifle slung across his chest. He gestured upwards with his other hand, his meaning clear.

"As a matter of fact," Han said, carefully bringing his hand up from his blaster to hook into his belt, "I was just going to see Jabba. You can tell him I've got the money I owe him for that shipment I had to dump."

Fett slowly, deliberately brought the muzzle of his blaster rifle around so that it was pointed at Han, though he did not put his finger on the trigger. He held out his other hand. "I'll take it now, then."

Han shrugged casually. "Well, I don't have it _with_ me, but I will soon enough."

Though Han could not see Fett's expression behind his inscrutable visor, he got the distinct impression that the bounty hunter was sneering just then. "You've really made him mad, you know," Fett said, slight amusement in his tone. "Mad enough to hire me."

Han spread his hands. "Hey, tell him I got a nice, easy charter today. Enough to pay him back, plus a little extra."

Fett stared at him for a few moments, almost certainly trying to make him uncomfortable. It was working.

Finally, the bounty hunter moved his blaster rifle slightly, so that it wasn't quite pointed at Han anymore. "You'd better have it this time, Solo," he said. "Next time Jabba sends me after you, I'm taking your debt out of you one way or another for making him waste my time."

Han knew he'd do it, too. Fett already didn't like him from some previous encounters; this sort of thing he'd probably do for free.

"My passengers are paying big," Han said, casually leaning against the wall next to him. "Like I said, I'll have more than enough."

Fett stared at him again from behind the visor of his Mandalorian helmet for a while, but he finally lowered his blaster rifle altogether. "Don't get boarded this time," he said as he walked past Han. He paused at the entrance to the docking bay. "I doubt your passengers would appreciate it."

"Sure thing," Han said. As soon as the bounty hunter's back was turned, he flipped him an obscene Corellian gesture before moving off to begin his pre-flight check.

* * *

Deep within the Super Star Destroyer _Executor,_ which was called by some the Empire's mobile capital, since it was where the Emperor spent most of his time, Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan sat in one of the prison cells, cursing the fact that Vader had somehow gotten wind of her passengers. His flagship had been waiting for her when she dropped out of hyperspace above Tatooine, and before she could flee, he had fired on her and disabled her ship's engines.

Now two of the Jedi she'd been trying to bring to the Rebellion were dead, and the third was probably close. What was her name? Leia wished to herself that she'd taken the opportunity to get to know the Jedi a little better. She especially wished that she'd been able to keep them out of the Empire's clutches. Knowing Vader, the only reason he'd kept the young female Jedi alive was so that he could try to convert her to his own twisted view of the Force.

The Sith Order had replaced the Jedi as the predominant Force-using group, and over the years, Vader had built his order up from himself to around two thousand Sith, who patrolled the Empire in a mockery of the old Jedi Order's duties.

Not for the first time, Leia wondered who had been more responsible for the darkness that hung over the galaxy: Vader or his Sith Master, Palpatine. The Empire had clearly been Palpatine's idea, but Vader had taken the reins upon his death and had spread the Empire over all of what had once been the Republic and a good deal beyond. The short-lived Confederacy of Independent Systems had been among the first to go, and now there were rumors that Lord Vader had sent a fleet into the Unknown Regions, looking for something that ranged from a powerful Sith artifact to the last remnants of the Jedi, depending on who you talked to.

With a sudden hiss that disrupted her thoughts and startled her, the door to Leia's cell whooshed open, revealing none other than the Sith Master himself, dressed as always in black.

Darth Vader had to duck his head to step inside her cell, but once he rose to his full height, he towered over Leia and cast a shadow across her from where he blocked out the overhead glowpanel's light.

"Now, Your Highness," he said, glaring down at her, "we will discuss the location of your hidden Rebel base."

With a quick gesture, the door to her cell closed of its own accord. Next, Vader removed the glove from his organic hand with his mechanical one, tucking it into his belt.

"Where are the Rebels hiding?" he asked threateningly.

Leia sneered at him, glaring up at him defiantly.

"This is your last chance to tell me willingly," the Sith Master said, flexing his flesh-and-blood fingers.

Leia spit on him.

Vader wiped the offensive matter off the front of his uniform tunic with his gloved hand, faint distaste on his cruelly handsome face. "Very well, then," he said, raising his organic hand.

Before Leia could ask him what he was doing, multiple bolts of jagged purple-blue lightning erupted from his fingertips and knocked her back against the wall of her cell.

Leia screamed in agony, and did not stop screaming for the next hour and a half.

* * *

Luke Skywalker had one impression of the _Millennium Falcon_ upon seeing it for the first time, and he said it aloud: "What a piece of junk!"

The saucer-shaped vessel, with its outrigger cockpit on one side and cargo prongs on the front, was scored with countless blaster hits and other damage. Luke thought he saw some patches that looked suspiciously like rust in a few places. Aside from that, the ship had been heavily modified, so that, while Luke recognized the basic YT-1300 freighter it had once been, he doubted there was a single original part left on the vessel. It was a wonder it didn't fall apart right then and there.

Han Solo emerged from the underside of the vessel, where he'd been checking a few systems in preparation for takeoff. "She'll make point five past lightspeed," he announced, looking over at Luke with a faintly irritated expression. "Hey, she may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts." He gestured behind himself to his vessel with his thumb. "I've made a lot of special modifications myself."

_I don't doubt it_, Luke thought to himself, giving the freighter a dubious look.

Han either didn't notice or didn't care. "But, we're a little rushed," he said, "so if you'll just get on board, we'll get out of here."

Luke followed Obi-Wan onto the ship, gesturing impatiently for the droids to hurry up. Threepio said something to Han on his way in for which the captain gave him a funny look, but otherwise the two droids remained fairly quiet as they made their way to the passenger area.

The giant Wookiee Chewbacca grunted something halfheartedly friendly at them as he made his way up to the cockpit, and Captain Solo made the equivalent sort of noise as he followed a few seconds later, glancing at his passengers briefly.

Luke and Obi-Wan secured themselves in the acceleration couch behind a dejarik table, listening to the powerful rumble of the _Millennium Falcon_'s engines as they cycled up. On a whim, Luke unbuckled his belt and decided to go watch the takeoff from the cockpit; he'd never actually left the planet before, and was curious.

Obi-Wan followed him, and as the two Jedi entered the cockpit, Han glanced back at them with a casual expression.

"You'd better sit down," he said over his shoulder before he resumed his conversation with Chewbacca. The two of them muttered to each other as they flipped switches and adjusted controls, an obviously practiced routine.

Obi-Wan sat down in one of the chairs behind the pilot's seat, buckling his crash webbing and adjusting his long brown robe beneath it. Luke remained standing a few seconds longer, watching as the ground dropped away beneath the cockpit windows. Without warning, Han gunned the engines and surged forward at an incredible rate of acceleration, streaking across the Tatooine sky on his way off the planet.

Luke stumbled backwards, luckily in the direction of one of the other chairs, and was knocked into it, landing heavily with a surprised grunt. He saw a shadow of a grin flicker around Han's mouth as he continued to adjust controls, but Chewbacca's reaction was considerably less subtle; the huge furry Wookiee openly laughed at him, a growling, barking sound.

"I told you to sit down," Han said, attempting to smother a chuckle.

To Luke's further embarrassment, even Obi-Wan was smiling slightly beneath his silver beard, though the old Jedi Master was trying to hide it.

In only seconds, the _Falcon_'s powerful engines roaring behind them, the blue sky of Tatooine gave way to the inky blackness of space, dotted with pinpricks of light from distant stars. Luke was impressed, but he kept it to himself, not wanting to disturb Han and Chewbacca as they worked.

Han glanced around at the space above them, looking down at one of his monitors next. "No _Executor_," he said. "They must have left already." He turned back to Luke and Obi-Wan with a grin. "No matter; we'll beat 'em there by hours." He affectionately patted the console next to him. "This old girl's much faster than that lumbering beast." He grinned mischievously in Luke's direction. "You can moon 'em as we fly past, okay?"

Chewbacca snuffled with laughter again, barking something at the captain. Han snorted and laughed himself as he turned back to his instruments. Luke frowned; he was probably the butt of the joke, from the glance Chewbacca gave him before laughing again.

The young Jedi sighed to himself. This was going to be a long trip.

* * *

Darth Vader pulled his glove back on as he left Leia's cell, both frustrated and impressed. The Alderaanian princess had told him nothing, displaying a remarkably strong will for one so young.

It was another six hours to Alderaan, and she would need at least four to recover enough for him to try again, so Vader went back to his quarters, trying to think of anything else he could use to get the information out of her. Other interrogators had already questioned the rest of _Tantive IV_'s crew, but they knew nothing; apparently Leia herself was the only one aboard knowledgeable about Rebel activities.

Fortunately, there was someone else aboard whose importance was sufficient to engage the Emperor's attention: the young Jedi he'd captured aboard the princess's starship. On his way to his quarters, Vader used his comlink to order her brought to him, restrained but not sedated. He wanted her to be able to listen to him clearly.

Displaying impressive efficiency, the medic and three stormtroopers were waiting outside the entrance to Vader's quarters with the prisoner even as he approached. Vader used the Force to open the door, and one of the stormtroopers roughly shoved the Jedi inside, causing her to stumble and fall. She glared at him, but did nothing further, obviously smart enough not to try anything with a Sith Master nearby.

"Leave us," Vader ordered, hauling her to her feet with the Force.

Once the troopers and the medic were gone, the door closed behind them, Vader gestured for the young Jedi to precede him into the main room of his quarters. As he had expected, her gaze was drawn first to the wall of lightsabers, her eyes focusing on her own and that of her master.

Vader gestured at the dispenser set into the wall on the other side of the room, setting it to produce a glass of water. "Are you thirsty?" he asked the Jedi. He received only silence in reply.

The Sith Master took a few more steps into the room, looking back at his 'guest' as she continued to stare at the lightsabers. She was young, probably not more than twenty, with dark eyes, attractive features and short black hair. She looked Kuati, and while probably not a noble, was definitely from that planet. She was dressed in typical Jedi style, in a loose-fitting off-white tunic and slightly more tight-fitting pants tucked into brown knee-length boots. The tunic still bore the hole from the blaster shot, showing the bandage underneath.

"Your skills were impressive," Vader said, clasping his hands behind his back beneath his cloak. "What is your name?"

She gave him only a defiant glare in reply, unflinchingly meeting his eyes with contempt in her own.

"You already know my name," he said, not breaking eye contact. "It is only courteous that you tell me yours."

"Malysa Kolos," she said finally, continuing to meet his gaze. She seemed to be determined not be the first one to break eye contact.

Vader did not outwardly show it, but he recognized her last name. Who else did he know named Kolos? As he and the young woman continued their silent contest of wills, the missing information rose to the surface, retrieved from the depths of his mind. One of the newest troopers selected for the 501st, number TK-421, was named Tyraj Kolos. Now that Vader thought about it, they had similar features. Cousins or siblings, perhaps?

That would be an interesting coincidence, especially considering TK-421 had been the one to shoot her. Had he recognized her and shot anyway? If so, the man's loyalty was commendable.

"How many of them did you kill?" Malysa asked suddenly, surprising Vader. She had been completely silent, giving no indication of her thoughts

He did not show his surprise outwardly, keeping his face carefully passive. "I have killed many," he replied. "You will have to be more specific."

She gestured with her cuffed hands at his wall of lightsabers, dark eyes not leaving his. "How many of those Jedi did you kill yourself?" she asked.

"All of them," Vader said honestly. "All but one."

With a tug of the Force, Malysa's lightsaber flew off the wall and into his hand. "Impressive craftsmanship," he said, holding the weapon up for emphasis. "Your skills are nearly complete."

Malysa said nothing, still glaring at him.

Vader found the activation plate on the weapon and ignited it, summoning a brilliant blue beam of energy into existence with a _snap-hiss_. Moving with a suddenness that surprised the young woman and caused her to break eye contact and step back, he expertly whipped the lightsaber down and between her hands. The severed cuffs dropped to the deck in several pieces.

"Peace is a lie; there is only passion," said Vader, quoting the first line of the Sith Code. "I have discovered this to be true."

Malysa still said nothing, meeting his eyes again. She rubbed her wrists where the cuffs had been, eyeing him suspiciously. Was he really stupid enough to leave her unrestrained in a room full of lightsabers? Or was he simply so confident in his own skills that he did not consider her a threat? He could sense her puzzlement as she looked up at him.

Vader gestured to her with her lightsaber. "Your Jedi teacher undoubtedly told you to restrain your passion, did he not?"

She nodded.

"But when you fought me, you did not restrain yourself," he said, gesturing again so that the other lightsaber she had used flew into his other hand. He ignited it, conjuring a green beam that cast weird shadows on both of them combined with the blue light of her lightsaber. "Why?"

"I saw what you had done to my friends and I wasn't able to control myself," she admitted. "I am ashamed of this."

"You shouldn't be," said Vader. "Did you not notice that your anger made you stronger? Seeing the bodies of your master and your fellow student made you very angry, didn't it?" He crossed the glowing, humming lightsabers until they formed an X, framing her face in the upper part. "It made you hate me, didn't it?"

"A Jedi does not hate," she said, the lightsabers reflected in her large dark eyes.

"Well then," Vader said sardonically, "you must not be a Jedi. I felt your hate quite strongly."

Malysa visibly struggled to keep her composure, and Vader felt her emotions clearly through the Force: anger directed at him mixed with an attempt to remember what her Jedi Master had told her, unsuccessfully trying to summon calm and serenity.

"It was a momentary slip in my control," Malysa said. "I am still trying to learn how to control my emotions." The blue-and-green X still reflected in her eyes, and she did not flinch at the shining lightsabers so close to her.

"You don't have to control your emotions," Vader said. "They give you strength." He deactivated the lightsabers in his hands, retracting the blades into the hilts, so similar and yet so different. He held up the green-bladed lightsaber. "Your friend knew this; he was close to letting his passion fuel him, as were you."

"Don't talk about him," she said, still struggling to keep an impassive expression.

"Very well," Vader said, gently floating the young man's lightsaber back into its place on the wall. He kept Malysa's lightsaber in his hand. "But you know what I say is true. I let my emotions fuel my actions, and it has made me very powerful. I defeated you, your fellow student, and your master. How do you explain this?"

"It's because you are stronger in the Force," Malysa replied. "You were supposed to be the one to bring balance to the Force."

"To tip it in the direction of the Light, you mean," Vader scoffed, gesturing at her with the hilt of her lightsaber. "I know how the Jedi were trying to use me."

"Obviously you don't," she countered, impressing him with her spirit, "since you're using the Dark Side."

"I use the Force as a whole," Vader said. "As it is meant to be used. I do not limit myself to one side or the other, and neither do my students." He leaned forward slightly. "I _am_ bringing the Force into balance, and this is what gives me my power."

He flipped her lightsaber around, so that the emitter faced his chest, and offered it to her. "Stop limiting yourself. Your master knew how powerful you are, and he was afraid of you. This is why he tried to hobble you with pointless restrictions; he knew just what you are capable of, and was jealous of your power."

Malysa shook her head, glaring up at him again. "You don't know anything about him."

Vader straightened, but left her lightsaber within easy reach of her hand. "Don't I?" he said. "I have become very adept at sensing the thoughts of others, and his were very plain to me." He looked down at her, his gaze boring into her. "As are yours. You are considering seizing your lightsaber and striking me down with it. You will be doing the galaxy a very great favor, you think, and I have been very foolish in giving you the opportunity."

She broke eye contact, looking away visibly shaken.

The Sith Master extended the lightsaber further, holding its pommel barely a few centimeters from her chest. "Take it," he said.

Eyeing him suspiciously, she took her lightsaber and held it in front of her, not activating it.

Vader spread his hands. "Strike me down. Do the galaxy a favor. I will not stop you."

Malysa ignited her lightsaber, staring at him warily. "This is a trick," she said, backing away a step.

Vader unhooked his own lightsaber from his belt and tossed it through an open door on the other side of the room, closing it afterwards. "No trick," he said.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked, carefully holding her lightsaber between herself and the Dark Lord.

"Because I know you," he replied. "I have seen your thoughts, your personality. You are intrigued by what I have told you, and you sense the truth of my words. The line between Dark and Light is the answer, and only there can true power be gained. You are not willing to simply strike me down, when you know that I can teach you to reach your true potential."

Malysa feinted, making as if to separate Vader's head from his shoulders, but he did not flinch, remaining perfectly motionless. She backed away confusedly, still holding her lightsaber in front of herself.

"This is a trick," she said. "You are evil."

Vader smiled enigmatically. "Am I?" He folded his arms over his chest. "Or am I right?"

Malysa deactivated her lightsaber and dropped it to the deck with a _clank_. "No," she said, backing away again. "No, I won't listen to you."

Vader shrugged. "You just need time to think it over." He reached behind himself and triggered the comm unit set into the arm of his chair. "Find our guest some suitable quarters," he said over his shoulder, keeping his eyes on the Jedi. "See to it that she is made comfortable."

"_Yes, my lord,_" one of his servants answered. A moment later, the man stepped through the door, indicating that Malysa should follow him.

Vader gestured, and her lightsaber leaped from the floor and into her hand, which reflexively tightened around it. She looked over at the Sith Master with a curious expression.

"I trust you will not abuse my hospitality?" he said, gesturing for her to follow the servant.

Malysa left slowly, her emotions swirling in turmoil. As the door closed behind her, Vader smiled. She was thoroughly confused, his intention from the beginning. It was only a matter of time before she began to question her Jedi Master's teachings and motivations. With careful manipulation, he would soon have another recruit for the Sith Order.

And the more Force-users Vader had to support him, the closer he came to reaching his ultimate goal.

* * *

"You put a hole in my ship and you're floating the rest of the way to Alderaan," Han's voice warned.

Luke rolled his eyes behind his blindfold. "They're training remotes," he replied. "They'd be lucky to put a hole in a sheet of flimsiplast."

"Are you ready, Luke?" Obi-Wan's voice asked from somewhere to his right, in front of him. He could sense his teacher leaning against the console where Han Solo sat, a derisive expression undoubtedly on the smuggler's face. Chewbacca sat behind him at the dejarik table, playing a match with Artoo, though Luke could sense the Wookiee watching him.

Luke ignited his lightsaber, its sapphire brilliance visible even through his heavy blindfold. He held it at the ready in a defensive position in front of himself, listening for the telltale hiss of the remotes' repulsors.

A slight twinge in the Force alerted him to the fact that Obi-Wan had activated the remotes, and within the space of a second, three of them fired at him from different directions. Luke moved his lightsaber through a quick defensive pattern, deflecting the low-power bolts with his shining blade back at the remotes that had fired them.

"Lucky," Han said. "Not exactly the most complicated firing pattern, either."

"In my experience," Obi-Wan said to the smuggler, "there's no such thing as luck. Only the Force."

Han scoffed. "Yeah, right. I've been from one side of this galaxy to the other, and I've seen a lot of strange things, but I've never seen _anything_ to make me think there's some all-powerful force controlling everything." Luke could almost see Han's derisive expression. "There's no mystical energy field that controls _my_ destiny."

"All right," Luke said challengingly, lowering his blindfold, "why don't _you_ try controlling the remotes?"

"Luke," Obi-Wan began, but Han interrupted him.

"Sure, kid," he said. "Just don't start crying if you get zapped. Those stun bolts hurt."

Luke could sense Obi-Wan's disapproval through the Force, but also a small amount of curiosity. He handed the control unit to Han, who shuffled a little in his seat as he looked the unit over. Han was harder to read than Obi-Wan, but Luke sensed hidden amusement and skepticism.

"Do be careful, Master Luke," Threepio said from his seat next to Chewbacca. "I would hate to see you damaged." Artoo burbled something sarcastic-sounding, and the protocol droid came as close as a motionless face could to glaring at the astromech. "Oh, be quiet, Artoo," he said.

Han held up the control unit. "Ready, kid?" he asked.

Luke nodded, pulling his blindfold back into place. He ignited his lightsaber again, dropping into a defensive crouch as he listened with both his ears and the Force.

Abruptly, all six remotes fired at Luke in a staggered pattern, hovering off in different directions to shoot again a moment later. Luke drew on the Force, remembering what Obi-Wan had taught him about movement in battle, and let it move his hands through a quick defensive pattern, deflecting all six of the first bolts back at the same remotes that had fired them and the second six at different remotes, purposefully angling his lightsaber for the last bolt so that it _spang_-ed off the bulkhead half a meter above Han's head.

The remotes hovered to a stop as Chewbacca barked with laughter behind Luke. The young Jedi deactivated his lightsaber and pushed his blindfold up out of the way, looking over at Han with a _told you so_ expression.

Chewbacca continued to laugh, and the smuggler shot him a dirty look. "Aw, shut up," he said. "It's not that funny."

The Wookiee simply woofed out another laugh, grinning. Artoo similarly twittered with electronic laughter.

Luke glanced over to see Obi-Wan looking at him with a reproving but nevertheless amused expression. "You are improving, Luke," he said.

Han snorted, setting the control unit on the console next to him. "What, he could only hit eleven out of twelve last time?" Something on the console next to him beeped, and he gestured quickly to his copilot. "We're coming up on Alderaan."

Chewbacca hit a final command on the dejarik board and got up from his seat, lumbering off to the cockpit. The tiny holographic monster he had selected jumped forward a space and finished off one of Artoo's, growling fiercely.

Artoo bleeped something after the Wookiee, and Threepio thumped the astromech's dome with one metal hand. "I told you not to leave that piece there," the protocol droid said. "There's no cause for language like that."

Luke pulled his blindfold the rest of the way off and tossed it on the dejarik table, shaking his head amusedly. How did Princess Leia put up with those two?

"We must move quickly once we land," Obi-Wan said. "Vader will have transmitted ahead, and the Royal Family have likely been arrested already. We must make sure we are in the palace before Vader arrives and locks it down in preparation for the execution."

Luke nodded, hooking his lightsaber into its place on his belt. "I'll be ready, Master," he said.

Obi-Wan gestured toward the cockpit. "Let's go," he said.

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: This chapter was fun to write; Han Solo has always been one of my favorite characters, so I had a good time thinking up new smart-ass things for him to say. Chapter 4 will be up tomorrow.


	4. Getting In Is the Easy Part

**Four**  
(Getting In Is The Easy Part)

"Y'know, I always like coming here," Han Solo said, looking down at the blue-green orb of Alderaan, swathed with white clouds. It seemed peaceful even from orbit.

Luke Skywalker nodded from his seat behind Chewbacca, leaning forward to get a better view. Obi-Wan had been to Alderaan once, years ago on a mission from the old Jedi Order, and he had told Luke a bit about the planet. Luke definitely looked forward to seeing it, despite the nature of their mission.

Chewbacca growled something at Captain Solo, and the smuggler frowned at his sensor board. "You're right," Han said. He glanced back at Luke. "Strap in, kid."

"Why?" Luke asked.

Instead of replying, Han abruptly jerked the _Falcon_ to starboard, tipping the freighter on its side. The suddenness of the maneuver was more than the artificial gravity could handle, and Luke was thrown into the console next to his seat with bruising force.

In the next instant, Luke found out the reason for the maneuver; a gleaming white Star Destroyer reverted to realspace literally meters from their hull, overwhelming the smaller freighter with its sheer size. Han wrestled with the controls to keep the _Falcon_'s flight stable, muttering to himself, and Chewbacca bellowed something fierce-sounding at the enormous Imperial ship.

"You said it, Chewie," Han said, glaring turbolasers at the Star Destroyer. "Pushy Imperial," -here he said a Corellian word that probably wasn't polite- "think they can do just whatever the nine hells they want. Here we are, honest spacers just trying to make a living, and they're trying to ram us out of their way."

Chewbacca barked something probably insulting about the Star Destroyer's captain and pushed several buttons on the console in front of him, grumbling.

Han swooped the _Millennium Falcon_ low and quick, shooting out of range of both the Imperial ship's guns and tractor beam as quickly as he could.

"What's happening?" Obi-Wan asked, coming forward into the cockpit. He remained steady on his feet despite Han's frantic maneuvering, seating himself behind the pilot.

"Your friends decided to show up early," Han said over his shoulder, hands flying over the controls. "It'll be a little tougher to get to where you said, but it's still doable."

"Any sign of the _Executor_?" the Jedi Master asked.

Chewbacca growled a negative. He woofed a few more words, furry head looking up and to the right at another bone-white Imperial ship that appeared off their starboard side, moving into position with the first.

"What did he say?" Luke asked his master.

"He said that the _Executor_ hasn't arrived yet," Obi-Wan replied. "These are just the advance ships to secure the planet before the Emperor arrives."

"Ha!" Han crowed, pushing his ship steadily downwards for the planet. "Told ya we'd beat 'em!"

"_Freighter _Sunfighter Franchise_,"_ a clipped voice suddenly said from the comm unit, reading what was obviously a fake transponder code. "_This is the Imperial Star Destroyer _Chimaera. _Heave to and disengage your engines. Prepare to be taken into custody._"

Han made a face at the comm unit, saying another Corellian word that didn't need to be translated. "Give 'em static," he said to Chewbacca. "Let 'em think our comm's out."

"They'll probably believe it, too," Luke remarked. "Just look at the rest of this bucket."

Han glared over his shoulder at the young Jedi. "Watch your mouth, kid, or you're gonna find yourself floating home," he snapped. Turning back to his console, he suddenly increased speed and the _Falcon_'s engines roared, pushing them all back in their seats from the acceleration.

The smuggler glanced over at his copilot. "They chasing us?" he asked.

Chewbacca barked a negative, pointing to the comm unit again. He hit a switch and suddenly a dignified human man's face appeared on the tiny screen. His hair and beard were still mostly dark, but he had bits of gray around his temples and next to his mouth.

"Imperial fleet," he began, "this is Viceroy Bail Organa of Alderaan. May I ask why you have come to our system?"

"Why are _we_ getting this?" Han asked Chewbacca, steering the ship for Alderaan's atmosphere. The Wookiee growled a reply, and Han's dark brows rose. "Systemwide, huh?" he said, adjusting another control. "They must want everybody to hear this."

The screen split suddenly, and another man's face appeared on the other side, this one a blue-skinned alien with black hair and red eyes, dressed in a white Imperial uniform. "This is Grand Admiral Thrawn on the Imperial Star Destroyer _Chimaera_," the alien replied. "Emperor Skywalker has placed your daughter Leia Organa under arrest for treason against the Empire. As accessories to her crime, you and the entire Royal Family of Alderaan are hereby also placed under arrest. This system is now under Imperial jurisdiction."

Bail Organa maintained a dignified expression, adopting a tone of righteous indignation. "We have committed no such crimes, Admiral," he said, looking firmly into the camera. "Alderaan is a loyal subject of the Empire."

Thrawn maintained an impassive, yet polite expression. "Lord Vader does not share your view of 'loyalty', Viceroy," he replied, his measured voice tinged ever so slightly with reproach. "He will conduct your trial when he arrives."

Bail's eyes widened slightly. "The Emperor is coming here?"

Thrawn nodded once. "The _Executor_ is on its way as we speak. Please, do not resist. I have no desire to harm you or any on your planet."

Organa's expression became resigned. "You know Alderaan is a peaceful world, Admiral," he said. "We cannot resist you, nor shall we."

Thrawn smiled politely. "I thank you for your cooperation, Viceroy." With that, he terminated the connection.

"Great," Han said, readying the _Falcon_ for atmospheric approach. "This was supposed to be a nice, easy charter, and now we end up in the middle of an invasion."

"Do you think it'll really go that far?" Luke asked.

"Almost certainly," Obi-Wan answered. "First, they will blockade the planet until Darth Vader arrives, and when he does, they will conduct a show trial before he executes the Royal Family. Once he has done that, he will install an Imperial Governor here to remind the Alderaanians that they are his subjects." Obi-Wan's face showed his sadness. "Then they will install a number of military bases to further make an example of them."

"Either that, or they'll bombard the surface into glass from orbit," Han said darkly.

Obi-Wan shook his head. "No, Vader wouldn't destroy an entire planet for the actions of just a few people. There's too much of Anakin left in him for that."

Luke scoffed bitterly, but otherwise did not reply. Han gave him a curious look, but returned to his instruments. He muttered something to Chewbacca, who woofed a reply.

"All right," Han said as the _Millennium Falcon_ began entering Alderaan's atmosphere, "we'll drop you off a klick or so from Aldera City, and then me and Chewie are going to find a good place to wait this thing out."

"What?" Luke exploded at the smuggler. "You can't just sit back and wait as Darth Vader kills all these people!"

Han looked back at him with an indignant expression. "Hey, I don't like it any more than you do, kid, but there's not a whole lot I can do about it, is there?"

Chewbacca growled a reluctant agreement, looking out as the wide green fields and white cities of Alderaan whipped past beneath them.

"There is something you can do," Luke said quietly. "You can help us."

Han laughed bitterly. "Hey, the price on my head is big enough already. I'm not going to add to it by snatching prisoners out from under the Emperor's nose." He turned back to look at the young Jedi. "I try to make a point of not aggravating people who can kill me with their minds, yeah?"

"The Rebellion will reward you," Luke said, trying to appeal to the smuggler's greed. The _Millennium Falcon_ was their only way off the planet, especially with a fleet of Star Destroyers lurking around. "Some of the richest people in the galaxy are contributors."

Han snorted. "Yeah, until the Empire freezes their accounts." He looked back at Luke dubiously. "How am I going to get paid for this, steal a painting off the palace walls?"

While he hadn't known Han Solo all that long, Luke Skywalker had learned enough about the Corellian smuggler to know that despite his amoral exterior, he was basically a good person at heart.

"Han," he said seriously, "It's the right thing to do. If you don't help us, Bail Organa and his family are going to die."

Han frowned, then frowned deeper when Chewbacca growled something softly at him. "Yeah, I know what _you_ want to do," he said to the Wookiee. "But _I'm_ the captain here."

"Han," Luke said again. "Are you going to let the Alderaanians die?"

"Yes," Han replied with false hardness. He scowled. "No," he admitted softly. He looked back at Luke, then frowned. "Oh, quit making that face at me," he said. "I'll help you out."

Chewbacca rumbled something with the general meaning of _I thought so_, and Han gave him a dirty look. "Yeah, whatever," he said, waving his friend off. He looked back at the two Jedi. "These rich friends of yours better come through in a big way for this," he warned, pointing at Luke.

The young Jedi nodded, and the captain went back to his board. Luke glanced over at Obi-Wan, who had remained silent during the exchange, and the Jedi Master smiled approvingly, reaching over to pat Luke's shoulder.

Luke smiled to himself as the _Falcon_ soared over a breathtaking white-capped mountain range, angling for the capital city of Alderaan.

Then he frowned. Convincing Han had been the relatively easy part; getting the Organas off-planet would be difficult on an entirely different level.

* * *

Malysa Kolos stared out of the viewport of her quarters on the _Executor_ as the churning tunnel of hyperspace whipped past, tossing her lightsaber from one hand to the other. Her thoughts boiled within her at the same rate as the chaotic blue illusion outside.

She looked down at her boots, which were black instead of the usual brown. Her entire outfit was in darker colors than she liked, typical Sith robes in dark gray and black instead of her preferred white and brown. These clothes had been waiting in a neat pile when she emerged from her shower, her original clothes gone, and despite her distaste, they were the only thing available, so she had to wear them. She scoffed, irritated with Vader's mind games.

Malysa ignited her lightsaber, staring into its brilliant azure blade. She smirked wryly to herself; she'd half expected Vader to have replaced it with a red Sith lightsaber to go with her new clothes.

_Are you ready to see what I can show you?_ Darth Vader's voice asked in her mind.

Malysa scowled at the unwelcome intrusion. _Speak of a demon,_ she thought to herself, _and he shall appear_.

_I'm hardly a demon_, Vader's mental voice answered. _One of Palpatine's earlier apprentices fits that description more accurately._

_Maul_, Malysa thought. Her master had been at Qui-Gon Jinn's funeral, then an apprentice to one of the Jedi who'd gathered there, and had heard the story of the thing that had killed him from Master Jinn's apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

_Darth Maul was an animal_, Vader thought to her. _The result of sinking too deeply into the Dark Side. On the other side was Yoda, the result of veering too far into the Light. He and the other Jedi Masters were blinded and restricted by their own insistence upon the Order's archaic, outdated rules._

Malysa restrained herself from thinking something insulting back at the Dark Lord, remaining silent in the mental conversation instead.

_Come now,_ Vader 'said' engagingly, _don't hold yourself back. Tell me what you are thinking._

_You can't choose both sides,_ Malysa thought back at him. _The Dark Side and the Light Side of the Force are as opposite as night and day._

_Ah,_ Vader rejoined, _but do not night and day meet in twilight?_

_That doesn't apply to the Force!_ Malysa responded, frowning. _You're not going to trick me with your nonsense._

_I am not trying to trick you,_ Vader replied. _I am simply trying to show you the truth about the Force. Limiting yourself to one side or the other is halving your power._

_What you said earlier was correct,_ he continued,_ I _am_ the one to bring balance to the Force, and that is precisely what I am trying to do. I use the whole Force, as it is intended to be wielded._

_Wielded? _Malysa 'said' skeptically. _The Force is not a weapon._

_It _is, _Malysa,_ Vader countered. _The Force is both a weapon and a tool, a servant and a master. I have spent the last twenty years exploring the higher mysteries of the Force, as well as the results of Palpatine's studies over the decades before that. You forget, I have access to the entirety of the Jedi Archives and all the Sith knowledge Darth Sidious ever collected. I have thousands of years of study on both sides of the Force at my disposal, and I have learned a great deal._

Malysa had the impression of a mental invitation, almost like an extended hand, and a powerful compulsion to take it. _Your true potential lies with me, Malysa Kolos_, Vader 'said' invitingly. _Step up and take the power you were born to have._

Conflicted, Malysa nearly 'took' the mental hand. _No,_ she thought finally. _No, I… I can't._

_Understandable,_ Vader replied patiently. _You still need time to think, to see the truth in my words. I will make my archives available to you. I keep copies of everything I use for research aboard my vessel, so you may access them from the terminal in your quarters._

With that, Malysa felt Vader's presence withdraw from her mind, though she could still sense him nearby; his quarters were only a few dozen meters from hers, and it was impossible for a Force-sensitive being not to perceive power of that magnitude.

Malysa Kolos felt very alone just then, more frightened than she'd ever felt in her life. She was frightened of the Dark Lord, frightened of this cold, spartan ship, and most frightened of the fact that she was beginning to see sense in what Vader said to her.

Leaning forward to place her elbows on her knees, Malysa pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes, pushing her fingers through her short, thick hair.

What was she going to do?

* * *

"Getting in's going to be the easy part," Han Solo remarked to the two Jedi and Chewbacca. "The Imperials haven't landed their troops yet."

"Yes, but getting out will be somewhat more complicated," Obi-Wan said.

Han fixed the old Jedi Master with a wry look. "Master of understatement," he said, smirking.

The five of them -they'd brought R2-D2 along to deal with any computer systems in their way- looked up at the elegant white lines of the Royal Palace, framed by a spectacular blue sky and a blanket of white, fluffy clouds. The angular lines of the Star Destroyers in orbit marred the serenity of the setting somewhat.

"Why don't we just go in through the front door?" Luke asked, shrugging under his dark brown robe. "The Imperials haven't landed here yet."

Han fixed him with a look that silently asked, _what are you, stupid?_ "Security cameras," he said as if it should be obvious. "The Imps are going to be here any time now, and the first thing they're gonna do is look over the Palace security tapes to see who's been around. If they see two Jedi waltz into the palace and back out again, they're gonna turn the whole city upside down to find you, and there goes your rescue plan." He frowned, idly rubbing the edge of his finger over the scar on his chin. "No, we've gotta come up with something else."

He noticed a dapper older gentleman walking down the street, then glanced up at a nearby billboard and grinned as an idea formed in his mind. He held up the money they had given him for their passage here. "What do you guys say to some new suits?"

* * *

Less than an hour later, as the first Imperial dropships bearing stormtroopers streaked through the atmosphere, three men, a Wookiee, and an astromech droid approached the entrance to the Royal Palace below the white towers and spires stretching far overhead.

Jerik Noran, the chief guard on duty, armed only with a largely ceremonial spear, held up his hand for them to halt as he looked them over. The man in the lead was perhaps in his late fifties or early sixties, with immaculately combed silver hair and a dignified beard to match. He was dressed in a dark blue suit in the latest Alderaanian fashion, gold cufflinks on the sleeves of his white shirt.

"Hello there," he said politely to the guard. "I realize this may be a somewhat inopportune time, but my associates and I were requested to come to the palace as soon as we could. I understand Lord Vader will be holding a trial once he arrives."

Jerik frowned; he knew exactly what would happen at this 'trial', and he liked his employers too much to allow this man, whoever he was, to take advantage of the situation. "That's right," he said, frowning heavily at the strangers.

"We understand the gravity of the situation," said the taller of the two young men with the older gentleman. Despite his neatly slicked dark brown hair and well-fitting dark gray suit, he had a vaguely disreputable air about him. "We're from Aldera City's best law firm," he continued, quoting a series of multiple-syllable names with practiced quickness that Jerik didn't quite catch, "and we'd like the most serious honor of defending the Royal Family against the Empire's arbitrators."

Jerik eyed them dubiously; while the three men certainly looked like lawyers, he'd never heard of any law firm with a Wookiee before. "What's he here for?" he asked, gesturing to the furry giant with his spear.

The Wookiee smiled in an attempt to be reassuring, but the display of his rather large, sharp teeth resulted in the opposite effect.

"Protection," the dark-haired man replied. "Can't trust the Imperials, you know." He gave the guard a reassuring grin.

Jerik thought their story was fishy. He had also noticed the way the Wookiee had casually but carefully positioned himself so that his shoulder blocked the older man's face from the security camera above the guard post. Though Alderaan was peaceful, one didn't get to be chief guard by being unobservant.

He was about to send them away when the shorter of the two young men, who had dark blond hair and intense blue eyes, adjusted his suit jacket slightly so that the emitter of what looked quite a bit like a lightsaber was just barely visible to the guard.

His first thought was that they were Sith, but he didn't get that impression from them, especially the older man. In fact, he looked a bit familiar…

Jerik had to conceal his surprise as he suddenly recognized Obi-Wan Kenobi, the famed hero of the Clone Wars. He was twenty years older than all the images Jerik had seen of him, and his hair had gone silver, but it was definitely the same man.

"I'll show you to the Royal Family's chambers," Jerik said, knowing that if anyone could help them, it was the Jedi.

He didn't believe a word of all the propaganda the Empire had been spreading for the last twenty years; he'd been a teenager during the Clone Wars, and had met more than one Jedi himself, his brief encounter with Obi-Wan Kenobi on a previous visit of the Jedi's to Alderaan foremost in his mind.

"I'll tell them you're on your way," Jerik said with a meaningful look at Master Kenobi. The Jedi Master nodded sagely and followed as Jerik opened the door, his companions following shortly.

* * *

The _Executor_ did not so much revert from hyperspace as erupt, speeding toward Alderaan until it dwarfed all of the large-in-their-own-right Star Destroyers like saplings next to a mighty wroshyr tree.

The Emperor had arrived.

* * *

"People of Alderaan," Darth Vader began in a message that was transmitted all over the system, overriding the programming of any large screen or holo unit to display the still-handsome features of the man who had once been known as Anakin Skywalker. Billions of people watched in shock, horror, and resignation in turn, knowing almost before he said it what the Emperor was going to say.

"Your rulers are guilty of treason against the Empire," Lord Vader continued. "The Organa family has conspired with the Rebellion, and there must be consequences for this. The sovereign Empire is the legitimate government of this galaxy, and to my disappointment, the Royal Family has chosen to work with those plotting to undermine it." Vader glared into the camera, making reproachful eye contact with anyone watching the message. "This is a most unfortunate choice, and what I must now do to rectify it is not something that pleases me. But, terrorists and those who sponsor them cannot be tolerated, and for the good of the New Order and the peace it is trying to bring to our galaxy, it must be done. The Royal Family's trial will be held tomorrow morning at dawn."

Lord Vader leaned forward slightly, causing his face to fill the various screens around the system upon which it was displayed. "Do not resist my troops," he warned gravely. "No blood has to be shed today, but we will respond to any insurgency with appropriate force."

With that, he terminated the communication, leaving billions of people with a heavy heart.

* * *

"Master Kenobi, it is very good to see you again," Bail Organa said warmly, extending a hand to the Jedi Master. "I only wish it was under better circumstances."

Obi-Wan shook the proffered hand, nodding. "I wish the same, Your Highness," he said. "We must speak quickly, before Imperial troops arrive to take you into custody."

They were in a sitting room in the palace, lined with plush couches upon which the Jedi Master, Luke, Han, and Chewbacca sat, the latter two looking around somewhat nervously. The only time they'd been near this kind of luxury was in the palace of a Hutt, though Alderaanian style was much more elegant and reserved. The walls were white, as was the carpet and a great deal of the furniture. The whole place projected an aura of pristine, dignified nobility, elegant in its simplicity.

Han grinned, then dialed it back to a smile as the Viceroy looked over at him, a faintly distrustful expression on his face. Bail had given Luke a similar funny look when they'd been introduced, seeming almost like he recognized the kid. Han thought Luke hadn't ever been to Alderaan before, so this was yet another piece of the puzzle Han had slowly been putting together since Mos Eisley.

The smuggler had been a bit suspicious when he'd started getting hints about who his passengers were, but Luke sure didn't act like he was an Emperor's kid, not to mention the fact that if Anakin Skywalker had had children, most of the galaxy would probably have known it by now.

Either Luke didn't know who his father was, or knew and worked against him anyway. He was probably okay, but Han decided to be careful around the kid, at least until he proved he wasn't secretly working for his probable father. What he knew about Luke so far made that extremely unlikely, especially since the old man seemed to trust him, but you never knew with some people. Better cautious than dead, as the old smugglers' saying went.

Obi-Wan and Bail had been talking about what they would do while Han had been thinking, and he tuned back in to hear the important part.

"We'll do our best to get you out of the palace during the night," Obi-Wan said. "Security will be tight, especially with Lord Vader here, but I am confident we can manage."

Bail nodded. "As you may know, there is in fact a cell of the Rebellion here. I will tell you how to contact them, and you will be able to count on their aid." He paused, seeming uneasy for a moment. "I do not like putting them at risk like this, but…" He trailed off.

Obi-Wan smiled reassuringly. "It is worth the risk, Bail," he said. "We must make sure you escape. Your family is of great importance to the Rebellion," he finished, his words laced with a hidden subtext Han didn't quite understand.

Sure, they were rich, but why were the Organas so important? Any underground movement needed first and foremost money, and stars knew the Alderaanians had plenty of that. Was that the only reason, or was there something else going on here Han didn't know about?

_This better be worth it,_ Han thought to himself, not for the first time that day.

A servant, dressed in more white, appeared at the door and walked quickly over to Bail Organa with a worried expression. What she said made Han worried, too: "Lord Vader's shuttle has landed."

Bail nodded. "Go," he said to Obi-Wan, standing. "Our plans will be for nothing if you are caught here with us."

"We'll be back," Luke said earnestly. "We promise."

Bail smiled warmly at the young Jedi. "Thank you," he said. "Now go, quickly."

"Don't have to tell me twice," Han said, thinking amusedly as he said it that the Alderaanian noble had.

The three men and the Wookiee hurried out of the palace, headed off to meet with the Rebels.

* * *

Darth Vader strode through the front door of the Royal Palace as if he owned it. His dark cloak billowed dramatically out behind him as he marched with a platoon of stormtroopers through the normally tranquil white halls to where Bail Organa and the rest of his family waited, save one.

That one walked behind Vader, hands cuffed together but her pride bound not an iota. Princess Leia Organa held her head high, walking in as dignified a manner as she could surrounded by white-armored stormtroopers and the grim ebony-draped Vader.

She had not been afforded a change of clothing, so she still wore the white gown marred by the scorch marks from the Sith Master's lightning. Leia bore them like badges of honor, trying not to let the pain she was still in show on her face. Dignity was the key; she was likely being recorded right now for the footage the Empire would release to the rest of the galaxy along with that of her trial and almost certain execution. She refused to appear cowed or submissive, determined to be proud and dignified to the end. If need be, she would become a martyr for the Rebellion; she was willing to make that sacrifice for what she believed in.

Vader gestured dramatically with both hands, and the large white doors to her mother's throne room slammed open with an echoing _bang_. He stormed into the throne room, long legs carrying him almost faster than his stormtroopers could keep up.

Everything in the expansive hall, including the thrones and the Royal Family's clothing, was the simple, elegant white of new-fallen snow, save a few accents in light gray. Bail Organa and Queen Breha sat on their thrones with dignified, serene expressions, watching as Vader strode toward them like a tidal wave, his expression both triumphant and fierce.

The Sith Master's black clothing stood out like an eclipse in the pure white throne room, a kernel of darkness, making him seem even more unwelcome.

"Breha and Bail Organa," Vader began, pointedly not using their titles, "you are under arrest for treason against the Galactic Empire. You will be escorted immediately to your quarters, where you will remain under guard until your trial tomorrow morning."

Queen Breha rose from her throne and gracefully bowed her head in acknowledgment. Leia had never been more proud of her mother than she was in that moment, seeing her face this tyrant with grace and manners.

"As you say, Your Majesty," Breha said. "We hope this regrettable matter will be cleared by a fair court of law."

Leia kept her expression impassive, but inwardly cheered for her mother's choice of words. Vader could say nothing triumphant or judging without seeming petty now, and he would not risk it, not with the cameras running.

The muscles in Vader's jaw worked for a moment, too subtle to be picked up by any except those who stood next to him, and finally he nodded curtly, turning on his heel to march back out of the throne room as if that was what he had been planning all along. The stormtroopers moved forward and put binders on Leia's mother, father, and aunts, marching them out at blaster-point.

The Organa family followed serenely, heads held high.

* * *

_Are all Rebels this beautiful_? Luke Skywalker thought to himself, looking at the two women who had met them in secret in the lower levels of a parking garage several blocks from the palace.

Showing that his mind worked in similar ways, Han Solo leaned over and whispered Luke's exact thought in his ear a moment later. Luke had to smile at the coincidence.

One of the young women was a very dignified beauty with long, thick white hair that she wore loose in a waterfall down her back. She dressed in conservative Alderaanian white that nevertheless hinted at the graceful curves beneath. One instinctively felt a need to be polite to her, and all three of the men were, especially Han, surprisingly.

The other was a slightly younger woman about Luke's age with vibrant red-gold hair, her penetrating green eyes sweeping over the small group as they approached. She was dressed in darker, tight-fitting clothes that accentuated her own ample curves, and wore a blaster at her hip which was in excellent condition, like she took it apart and cleaned it every day. She moved with an easy, lithe grace, like a dancer, and Luke got the impression that she could handle herself extremely well in a fight. He thought she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, and his eyes hardly left her during the entire conversation.

"I am Winter, and this is Mara," the white-haired woman said to Obi-Wan. "We are most grateful for your assistance, Master Kenobi."

"Thank you," Obi-Wan replied. "I am happy to help you in any way I can."

"Getting into the palace will be simple," Mara said. "Winter knows all the passageways like she built them, and so do I." She looked at Obi-Wan gravely. "Bypassing Imperial security to get the Royal Family out is going to be very difficult."

"It will," Obi-Wan said, rubbing his beard thoughtfully. "Do you have any suggestions?"

Luke was waiting for the reply when he felt an elbow in his side. He glanced over to see Han grinning conspiratorially at him.

"Hey, kid," he whispered, "it ain't polite to stare." He glanced back over at the two women. "Can't say that I blame you, though. They are easy on the eyes."

Winter did not acknowledge their whispering, still engaged in conversation with Obi-Wan, but Mara flicked a glance in their direction, smiling slightly at Luke.

Han elbowed him again. "Way to go, junior," he whispered.

"Shut up!" Luke whispered out of the corner of his mouth back at the smuggler; Han just snickered at him in reply.

"What do you think, Luke?" Obi-Wan said, glancing back at his apprentice.

Luke realized with embarrassment that he hadn't been listening. Then he realized with further embarrassment that Obi-Wan knew this, and was admonishing his student.

"Well," he said, recovering as best he could, "what about the ventilation systems?"

Mara nodded once, apparently not noticing Luke's embarrassment, perhaps deliberately. "It'd be a tight fit, but you and I could fit through there, since we're the slimmest," she said. "Once we're inside the Royal Family's chamber, we can move the bookcase that's in front of the secret passage, where the rest of you can meet us. After that, we'd better move quickly to your ship, since the Imperials will notice they're missing before long."

"What should me and Chewie do?" Han asked, gesturing casually back at his copilot. "We're pretty good at sneaking into places like this."

Mara looked up at the gigantic Wookiee somewhat dubiously. "No offense," she said, "but you're a bit… noticeable."

Chewbacca growled and barked a casual reply back at her, shifting his massive feet on the rough ferrocrete of the garage's floor.

"He says he understands," Han said, "and not to worry about it. He'll wait with the _Falcon _and keep it ready."

Mara grinned in a friendly way, a smile that made Luke's insides go all funny even though it wasn't directed at him. "I understood him," she said, adjusting her hands on her blaster's belt. "We're grateful for your help," she said over Han's head at Chewbacca.

The Wookiee smiled back at her, displaying his teeth. Luke felt slightly unnerved by the expression, even though there wasn't even the slightest hint of malice in it; Chewbacca was just that intimidating.

"So," Winter said, "a few hours after dark, we'll make our way into the secret passage." She looked between Obi-Wan and Luke. "It would probably be best to wait until after midnight to remove the Royal Family," she said. "The patrols won't be as heavy."

"I agree," Obi-Wan said. "Shall we go with you back to your safehouse?"

"We'll take our speeder," Mara said, gesturing behind herself at it.

"So, what do we do until the mission?" Luke asked Han in a whisper, looking at his wrist chrono. Midnight was more than ten hours away.

Han clapped Luke on the shoulder. "Sleep. We're not going to get it for a while once the mission starts." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, glancing past Luke at Mara, who was bending over to open the trunk of their speeder for Artoo. "At least you got something to dream about, eh, kid?"

Luke looked at Mara and blushed as he realized Han's meaning. "Shut up!" he whispered fiercely at the smuggler.

Han laughed as he walked past him to get into the speeder, and even Chewbacca snickered as he moved past Luke. To make it worse, Mara smiled at Luke again as she moved for the front seat of the speeder.

"After you," she said, gesturing for him to get inside.

"Uh… okay," Luke said eloquently, trying furiously to stop his blushing. He got in, and she slid in next to him. He couldn't help but notice the way her leg was pressed against his, and she smiled at him again as she closed the door.

Luke happened to glance at the rearview mirror, and Han met his eyes in the reflection from the backseat, waggling his eyebrows again. If Luke could have shot death-beams from his eyes just then, he would have seriously considered doing it.

"Ready?" Winter asked from behind the steering controls. At a round of nods and other acknowledgments, she started the speeder and moved off for the safehouse.

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: Aw, Luke's all twitterpated. ;) Better watch out, kid. It got your dad in a lot of trouble.

All hail Zahn for creating some of the more interesting characters in Star Wars, a few of whom I got to use in this chapter. Thanks for all the reviews, everybody. Chapter 5 will be up tomorrow.


	5. Getting Out's a Different Story

**Five**  
(Getting Out's a Different Story)

Two Jedi, two Rebels, and a smuggler gathered in a secluded hallway on the lower level of the Royal Palace on Alderaan, surrounded by the darkness of midnight. The lights were not on in this part of the palace, since it had been shut down and sealed off shortly after the Imperial occupation had begun.

Getting in was not a problem, since three of the five people were experts in security systems. Now, they looked at each other in the darkness, here at the place where they parted ways.

Han Solo reached out and gently punched Luke Skywalker's shoulder. "We'll see you in the tunnels, kid," he said, receiving a nod from the young Jedi in reply.

"Once I see Han and Winter to the other end of the passage," Obi-Wan said, also to Luke, "I will disable the security systems between you and the exit."

Luke nodded. "We'll see you back at the ship, Master."

Obi-Wan nodded sagely, looking at his student. A twinge in the Force, accompanied by the dark presence of his former student, made him suspect they would not see each other again, and he reached out to clasp Luke's shoulder warmly. "Remember," he told his apprentice in what he hoped would not be his final lesson, "the Force will be with you, always."

Luke nodded almost sadly, perhaps sensing the same thing Obi-Wan had.

With a final series of exchanged glances, the small band of freedom fighters parted ways for their respective missions.

* * *

Despite the cramped quarters of the ventilation shaft, Luke didn't mind being jammed into a tiny tube of metal; ahead of him was Mara, who had to contort herself into some interesting positions to make her way through the duct-works.

"See anything?" she asked, shifting forward another meter. Every few meters a small grille opened up into one of the many rooms and passages of the palace, but all that was visible was a lot of Alderaanian white and the occasional stormtrooper.

"Uh-huh," Luke said absently, his eyes focused on something other than the side of the shaft. A very nice something.

"Oh, yeah?" Mara asked, grunting as she shifted so that she could see Luke. Her vibrant green eyes looked back at him curiously, only barely visible by the small amount of light filtering into the shaft from a nearby grille. "What?"

Luke was glad the darkness of the ventilation shaft hid his blush. "Uh, the patrols are lighter here," he said. "I've only seen three stormtroopers in the last twenty minutes."

Mara nodded before stretching back out again to crawl along another few meters of the shaft. "It's after midnight," she whispered back. "I don't think the Imperials are expecting anything to happen." He heard a dry, slightly mocking tone enter her voice. "The Alderaanians are too peaceful to try anything this sneaky."

Luke nodded, watching as her upper half and then her legs disappeared around a corner. He wriggled his way after her, feeling the cold metal of his lightsaber pressing into his chest from where he'd tucked it into his tunic. The lightsaber reminded him of his master suddenly, and the odd premonition he'd had through the Force drifted through his mind momentarily, that of a blue lightsaber crossing with a red one and challenging words exchanged in his father's voice and Obi-Wan's.

He shook the vision from his head as he came around the corner, trying to squeeze his shoulders through the narrow passage, and saw Mara slowly removing the screws that held a ventilation grille in place. "Find it?" he whispered ahead.

She nodded, rearranging herself in the shaft with enviable flexibility as she removed the grille and gently placed it ahead of herself in the cramped passage. Moving with a lithe grace, she swung her legs into the opening and quickly, quietly slipped out of the ventilation shaft.

Luke followed somewhat less quietly; stealth had never been his best skill, as he'd focused more on his lightsaber forms instead. He finally managed to extricate himself from the shaft, somersaulting to land almost without a sound on the thick carpet below.

He and Mara found themselves in a large, rectangular chamber, predominantly decorated in white. It was similar to the sitting room Luke and the others had met Bail Organa in several hours earlier, filled with comfortable, light-colored furniture. The lights were not on, and the only illumination came from an expansive window which let in the moonlight, setting the white walls almost aglow with a silver light. The only real color in the room came from several paintings hanging on the walls, one of them depicting some kind of insectoid creatures facing a storm or large cloud; it was hard to see in the dim light.

Mara stepped over to Luke and leaned over to whisper in his ear. He was almost too distracted by the pleasant feeling of her warm breath tickling his ear to hear what she said, but he made himself focus anyway.

"All of the Royal Family's bedchambers are adjacent to this room," she said. She gestured to several doors, stopping at a large one at the far end of the room. "The Imperial guards should be over there, since that's the only way in here besides the secret passage."

Luke nodded. "Where is it?" he whispered.

Mara gestured to a three-meter wide bookcase which was at least six meters tall, made of some kind of white stone and metal and filled with books. "Behind that," she whispered back.

The young Jedi frowned. He certainly hoped there was some kind of hidden release or counterweight; the bookcase looked extremely heavy.

"There's no counterweight," Mara said, almost as if she had sensed his thoughts. "We'll have to be careful when we move it." She looked over at him, green eyes serious. "Quietly, though. Lord Vader himself is in the palace somewhere, and if he hears us, it's all over."

Luke nodded, the seriousness of the mission reinforced by what Mara had said. If his… If Vader was here, getting out of the palace without attracting his attention was going to be extremely difficult. Luke half expected to have to fight his way back to the _Millennium Falcon_, though he hoped he didn't have to battle the Sith Master himself. That was not a fight he thought he could win, at least, not yet.

But first, something else was bothering him. "Hey," he whispered to Mara, "how are we going to move the bookcase without making any noise? I don't see any anti-grav units in here."

"Use the Force," Mara said, as if it was obvious. "That's why I brought you with me."

Luke chewed his lip thoughtfully, staring at the bookcase. It was heavy and unwieldy, but possible. The greater trick would be to do it without alerting Vader.

Mara tapped his shoulder, gesturing to one of the rooms. "Let's go," she said. "I want to get out of here as fast as we can."

The young Jedi nodded quickly and followed her.

* * *

"Careful!" Han hissed quietly, trying to catch all the pieces of debris before they hit the floor. With all these twisty passageways, who knew how far sound would carry?

Obi-Wan continued to slowly cut his way through the masonry with his lightsaber, trying to make as little sound as possible. Han and Winter stood on either side, catching the crumbling pieces of stone before they could crash to the floor. The three of them crouched in a secluded corner of a seldom-used hallway in the Royal Palace, trying to get inside the secret passage the Royal Family would be fleeing through along with Luke and Mara.

"I thought you said you knew these passages!" Han whispered fiercely to Winter; this obstacle was not one they'd been expecting.

"I _do_ know them," the elegant young woman whispered back, calm as ever. "I studied the plans very thoroughly, even the secret work orders the architect was supposed to have destroyed." She looked at the brick wall, which had been waiting for them when they'd moved a large bookcase aside. "I don't know who walled off this passage, though."

Han caught another chunk of stone, dislodged by the slow progress of Obi-Wan's lightsaber, and carefully set it down. "Let's just hope they didn't decide to seal off any more passages," he grumbled. "We can't keep doing this all night."

Winter nodded. "I wish I had been able to explore these passages beforehand, but I never had an opportunity before this mission. We chose this one specifically because it hadn't been used in decades; the Imperials won't be looking for us all the way down here. At least, not immediately," she amended.

"I'm finished," the Jedi Master said, deactivating his lightsaber. Letting his eyes fall half-closed in concentration, he moved his fingers in a slow, deliberate gesture.

As Han and Winter watched, the brick wall slowly lifted slightly free of the floor and moved back into the passage, swinging to one side before finally setting down almost soundlessly. Obi-Wan opened his eyes, turning to the others.

"I'm off to take care of the security system," he said. "I'll see you back at the ship."

"I wish I could come with you," Winter said. "I know the palace's security systems very well."

"Yeah, but you know the passages even better," Han said, gesturing at the dark opening. "And I'll get lost without you. Let's go."

Obi-Wan smiled quickly. "I'll be fine. Go help the others," he said.

Winter moved forward and warmly embraced the Jedi Master before nodding once and moving off into the passage.

Han backed into the passage, waving casually to Obi-Wan as he did so. "I'd give you a hug, too, but…" he said, smirking.

Obi-Wan smiled wryly, nodding in farewell before he moved off through the hallway.

Han turned back to the passageway and raced after Winter, hoping this crazy plan would work.

* * *

Darth Vader was deep in meditation when he sensed the Force being used nearby. His eyes flew open instantly; he should be the only Force-user on this planet, since none of his students were stationed here.

As the Sith Master quested after the mysterious Force-user, he gradually recognized the presence, one he'd not felt since…

"Obi-Wan," Vader said aloud, rising from where he had been kneeling on the floor of what had until recently been the Organas' throne room.

A slow smile came over his lips, and with a quick gesture, his lightsaber leaped into his hand.

His quest was nearly over now.

* * *

Leia Organa looked up in surprise as the door to her room opened and a young man with sandy blond hair and startlingly blue eyes stepped inside, looking around for a moment before his gaze finally locked on her.

"What's the matter?" Leia asked the intruder. "Lost?"

The young man took a few steps closer, gesturing for her to get up. "My name is Luke Skywalker," he said. "I'm here to rescue you."

"Skywalker?" Leia asked dubiously, knowing all too well who shared that name.

Luke waved a hand dismissively. "No relation. I'm here with Master Kenobi," he said urgently. "We've got to go!"

"Master Kenobi?" Leia asked, jumping to her feet. "Where is he?"

Luke waved for her to follow him. "Come on!"

Leia followed, and noticed as she did that a lightsaber hung from Luke's belt. Was he a student of Obi-Wan's?

Once she emerged into the main room of her family's quarters, she saw her mother, father, and aunts waiting with a young woman with flame-red hair of about her age that she didn't recognize.

The young woman gestured to the large bookcase on the wall opposite the moss-painting_ Killik Twilight. _"Okay, Master Jedi," she said to Luke. "Do your stuff."

Luke nodded and stretched his fingers, as if preparing for some physical exertion. Leia looked at him amusedly; was this skinny young man going to try and move that gigantic bookcase by himself?

The young Jedi's eyes fell half-closed in concentration, and he stretched out both hands, facing the bookcase. Slowly, a bit of dust shook loose from the highest shelf -Leia was briefly annoyed the cleaning staff hadn't been up there in long enough for that much dust to settle- and then, seemingly by itself, the bookcase moved outward a slow few centimeters, making no sound. Leia looked down and saw that the lower edge of the large, heavy bookcase that hadn't been moved since before she was born floated a centimeter above the carpet. Once one side of the massive bookcase had moved out about three-quarters of a meter, it slowly lowered to the ground again, touching down with extreme care onto the thick carpet.

Luke released the breath he'd been holding, opening his eyes and looking over at the others. He opened his mouth to say something when suddenly a different, slightly deeper man's voice called out of the passage behind the bookcase, "C'mon, kid, we don't have all night here."

A roguishly handsome man with dark brown hair poked his upper half into the room, waving the Organas and their rescuers over. "How's it going?" he asked casually when Bail looked over at him. "Looks like a straight shot to the _Falcon,_ so let's get out of here before the Imps show up."

Just then, the door to the room slammed open to reveal a squad of stormtroopers, who raised their blaster rifles and fired at the intruders.

The dark-haired man muttered a sulfurous Corellian oath and pulled a blaster, firing three shots in rapid succession back at the stormtroopers that came swarming into the room. He looked over at Leia through the sudden confusion, a glint of ironic humor in his dark eyes.

"Too late," he said, firing almost off-handedly to nail a stormtrooper between the eyes.

Leia hated him already.

* * *

Obi-Wan stepped over the unconscious forms of the Imperial technicians who had been manning the Palace's security system, hoping the induced sleep he had put them in would last long enough for him to get away before they raised the alarm. The security system was a relatively new addition, having been installed only within the last five years, but the rising violence of the Empire made such precautions necessary even on peaceful Alderaan.

With a quick adjustment of the systems, Obi-Wan disabled the motion sensors and other security devices between the passage at which he had left Han and Winter and the service exit one level down. This led into the palace's garage, from where the group could hopefully slip unnoticed to where Chewbacca and the droids waited with the _Millennium Falcon_.

The Jedi Master was now almost certain that he would not be joining them. He could sense the dark presence of the man he'd once called friend and brother questing after his own, sweeping the palace with a mental searchlight.

It was imperative that Anakin not sense his children. Obi-Wan would lay down his life if need be to keep them away from Vader and his twisted teachings. Luke and Leia were the last hope for the Rebellion; without them Vader would continue to spread his darkness over the galaxy, and with them at his side he would spread it faster.

As the Jedi Master moved off through the halls of the Royal Palace, headed for the palace garage, he reflected on how far things had diverged from his and Yoda's original plan. Obi-Wan had intended to leave Tatooine with Luke and come to Alderaan for Leia years ago, to take them to Dagobah where he and Yoda could finish their training. But, Darth Vader had grown exponentially more powerful in the years since Mustafar, both politically and in the Force, so it was simply too dangerous to leave Tatooine and go closer to the more populated sections of the galaxy, where the Emperor and his legions of Sith patrolled.

Obi-Wan paused suddenly. Several levels above, he sensed Luke and the others were in danger; stormtroopers had discovered the escape attempt and were now pursuing them through the palace's secret passageways.

His was not the only attention drawn to the sudden flurry of activity; he sensed Vader drawing closer to the action.

Obi-Wan picked up his pace. He had to get there before Vader did!

* * *

"I sure hope you're grateful!" Han Solo shouted to Leia over a barrage of blaster fire. "This is more effort than I usually put into a rescue!"

Leia moved out from behind the corner of the passageway at which she was taking shelter from the pursuing stormtroopers and fired three quick bolts from her blaster rifle, appropriated from a dead stormtrooper. She ducked back behind cover as the troopers fired back.

"Some rescue!" Leia shot back. "You came in here and you didn't have a plan for getting out?"

Han leaned out from behind his own cover and sprayed a hail of blaster bolts down the passage. "He's the brains, sweetheart!" he said, jerking a thumb at Luke, who was also armed with an appropriated blaster rifle. The troopers were too far away for him to use his lightsaber to do much more than deflect blaster bolts.

"I didn't know they were going to be stupid enough to go throwing grenades around down here!" Luke said indignantly, leaning out from beside Han to shoot as the smuggler reloaded. "They blocked the passage we were going to take!"

Mara, the only other person who'd managed to stay with the Jedi, the smuggler, and the princess, suddenly surged across the gap between Leia's corner and Luke and Han's, firing with her own blaster in one hand and a stormtrooper's sidearm in the other. A series of deadly red bolts lanced out from her blasters, dropping three of the opposing troopers with one salvo. Several of the troopers fired back, but hit only the wall behind her.

"Which way do we go?" Han shouted to the red-haired Rebel as he ducked around his corner, wincing as a trooper's bolt blew a chunk out of the wall next to his head.

"Back that way!" Mara shouted back over the explosions in the tunnel, pointing in the direction of the stormtroopers. "The passage we need to take is six meters in that direction, on the right side."

A grenade sailed in their direction, but Luke raised a hand and it suddenly reversed direction in mid-air and flew back toward the trooper who had thrown it. Luke fired a few bolts to provide cover, and the grenade exploded only a meter in front of the group of stormtroopers, hurling them backwards with tremendous concussive force. A few troopers had remained out of range, however, and renewed their barrage a moment later.

"We'll never make it that far!" Han shouted, leaning out to fire again. Luke suddenly grabbed the back of his vest and hauled the smuggler out of the way as a ruby bolt smashed into the wall behind them, passing through the space where Han's head had been a moment before.

"Thanks, kid!" Han said quickly. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he shoved Luke as far as he could down the passage leading off from their corner.

Mara saw the grenade coming, too, and pulled Leia aside, ducking as the detonator blew out the wall behind their corner and the two men's.

Han leaned back out and fired a quick salvo from his blaster to keep the stormtroopers from advancing. As he ducked behind cover again, he wrinkled his nose. "What's that smell?" he said, mostly to himself.

Mara gestured at the newly blown hole in the dark stone wall between them. "The garbage chute runs behind that wall," she yelled back.

Leia winced as a sudden flurry of bolts blasted a huge chunk of stone from the wall next to her. She leaned out and fired four times, then ducked back. "It's our only way out!" she shouted to the men. "The other passages here lead back up to the upper levels."

Han made a face. "I really don't want to go down there."

Leia glared across the passage at him. "You'd rather stay here?" She gestured at the hole with her blaster. "Into the garbage chute, flyboy!"

As soon as the words left her mouth, the princess jumped up and hosed the passage down with continuous fire from her blaster rifle, then leaped into the hole in the wall behind them as soon as she reached it. Mara followed a moment later, agilely dodging a number of blaster bolts before leaping in head-first.

"Wonderful girl!" Han remarked to Luke, who crouched next to him around the corner. He leaned out for another round of fire, then ducked back to face his companion. "Either I'm going to kill her, or I'm beginning to like her!"

Luke shrugged, probably thinking mostly the same thing. As Han provided covering fire, Luke jumped for the hole in the wall.

Almost positive he was going to regret this, Han backed up to the hole, pouring searing bolts of concentrated light from his blaster, and jumped in, not knowing what awaited him.

* * *

Obi-Wan's rush for the garage passage was stopped by a voice from the past.

"I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan," a voice he knew nearly as well as his own said behind him, tinged with dark anticipation and menace.

Obi-Wan slowly turned around to see the man he still thought of as Anakin Skywalker standing behind him, clad in a black Imperial uniform with no insignia, only a bit of silver trim on the cuffs and the collar. A long black cloak hung from his shoulders, and a black lightsaber hilt was gripped in his gloved fist, inactive for now. Anakin's face, twenty years older than the last time he'd seen it in person, was set in a grim expression, blue eyes glaring out at the Jedi Master. With his hair cut short in a severe style, he kept almost no traces of the fiery young man he'd once been, the man who'd been Obi-Wan's apprentice and later friend, ally in a hundred battles.

"It has been a long time," Obi-Wan Kenobi said to his old friend.

"Too long," Darth Vader said to his old enemy.

The two men stood in silence for a few moments longer, memories of the past swirling through both their heads as they faced each other down as enemies for the second time. The lights of the palace garage flickered above them, casting harsh shadows in the corners of the cavernous room and around the ferrocrete pillars that supported the level above. The garage was empty except for the Royal Family's speeders and limousines, a few maintenance droids the only spectators to the stand-off.

Vader finally ignited his lightsaber, issuing forth a ruby-red blade that he held loosely in his mechanical right hand, the one Dooku had cut off in the duel in which they'd faced him together.

He raised his chin, glaring over at Obi-Wan with arrogance and disdain in his eyes. "When I left you, I was but the learner," Vader said. "Now _I_ am the master."

Obi-Wan sighed resignedly, igniting his own lightsaber. "Only a master of evil, _Darth,_" he replied, emphasizing his former student's title.

Vader's lips quirked in a momentary sneer before he surged forward in a Force-enhanced leap, lightsaber swinging even as he landed. Obi-Wan blocked the heavy slash with his own lightsaber, backing up a step before striking himself.

The two of them were twenty years older than they'd been in their last duel, and only Vader was still capable of the kind of speed at which they'd moved during the confrontation on Mustafar. Obi-Wan was pushing sixty, but life on Tatooine had forced him to stay in shape. In addition, Obi-Wan had a greater command of the Force now than ever before, and this enabled him to keep up with Vader as the two of them dueled around the garage.

Vader whirled his scarlet blade through a furious pattern of slashes and thrusts, moving almost unpredictably as he pressed his former teacher backwards. He'd had twenty years to practice for this fight, and he'd not wasted them. Despite his dark leanings, it could not be denied that Anakin was now a master of both lightsaber combat and the Force, greater than any of the old Jedi Order he'd destroyed, perhaps even Yoda.

But Obi-Wan still had the advantages of both experience and detailed knowledge of his former student's mind. Vader might think he was unpredictable, but Obi-Wan could see each strike, each slash and each thrust almost before Vader thought of them himself.

Five times in rapid succession the Jedi and Sith Masters crossed blades, a furious flurry that almost could not be followed with the naked eye. Vader slashed low, and Obi-Wan managed to leap over it, ignoring the protestations of his legs, unused to this amount of exertion. He winced as something twinged in his knee upon his landing; he wouldn't be doing that again.

Vader slashed horizontally with his blade and knocked Obi-Wan's saber aside through sheer physical force. He whirled with the momentum to bring his boot up in a solid kick to Obi-Wan's chest, and the Jedi Master stumbled backwards, groaning.

"Your powers are weak, old man!" Vader sneered at him, advancing the space between them and slashing repeatedly.

Obi-Wan blocked every one of his blows, adopting an expression of serenity. "You can't win, Darth," he calmly informed the Dark Lord in the midst of the exchange. "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

Vader made a sound that was half scoff and half shout of challenge as he pressed forward, swinging his lightsaber with all the power he could muster.

* * *

"The garbage chute was a really wonderful idea, Princess!" Han said sardonically to Leia. "What an incredible smell you've discovered!"

The four of them stood in a square room, about six meters on a side, which was perhaps a quarter full of refuse whose composition Luke decided he'd rather not think about. Han was right; the odor was certainly… powerful, to say the least.

Leia pointed with her blaster back up at the hole through which they'd fallen. "You want to go back up there? Be my guest!" she snapped.

"I just might," Han countered. "I don't see any other way out of here." He waved at the rusty green walls and various bits of garbage which surrounded them. "Y'know, it's not going to take 'em long to figure out what happened to us. They're gonna turn this thing on any minute." He looked over at Mara, who was, along with Luke, looking for a way out of the tiny, smelly room. "What is this, anyway, a garbage masher?"

"An incinerator," the Rebel informed him, nudging a pile of garbage out of the way with her boot. "But there's a service hatch around here somewhere."

"_Incinerator?_" Han demanded as if he hadn't heard her last statement. "You made us jump into an incinerator?" He rounded on the princess, pointing at her with an incredulous finger. "That's literally out of the cooking unit and into the fire!"

"I didn't see you coming up with any better ideas," Leia shot back.

Han gestured back up at the hole at the top of the room. "Look, Your Highnessness, I had everything under control until you led us down here!"

"Sure you did," Leia said derisively. She looked around the small room, which was silent except for their argument and Luke and Mara shifting through the trash. "It could be worse."

Almost as if triggered by her words, a dull _fwoosh_ sounded from the far end of the room and the temperature increased by several degrees.

"It's worse," Han said, looking over at the source of the noise. "Hey, Red," he said in Mara's direction, eyes locked on the noise, "how does this thing work?"

"Radiation," she replied, gesturing to the walls. "The walls heat up until the garbage combusts."

"Ha!" Han said, looking around the incinerator desperately. "I don't know about any of you, but I don't plan on _combusting_ anytime soon. Find us a way out of here or it's extra crispy for all of us!" He pointed at Luke. "Start cutting with your laser sword, kid! One of these walls has to go somewhere." He pulled at his collar, already sweating.

Luke pulled his lightsaber from his belt, sweating himself. "But where? I don't know which one of these has the service hatch!"

"Do _something_," Han shouted, pointedly wiping some sweat from his brow.

"I think I've got something!" Leia called from the other side of the chamber, where she was pulling trash aside with her hands wrapped in the lower edge of her gown. Mara quickly joined her, kicking the already-hot garbage aside as fast as she could.

Han stepped over and with one quick motion, ripped the hood from Leia's gown, eliciting a briefly surprised look before he wrapped it around his hands and began shoveling debris away from what was looking increasingly like a hatch.

With the four of them working together, they quickly had the hatch cleared, but when Han tried the handle, it broke off in his hand. He hurled it against the far wall with a _clang_.

"Of course!" he yelled in frustration. His eyes widened suddenly as a bit of garbage erupted with flame at the other end of the small chamber. He shouted a Corellian oath in greater frustration, giving the door a solid kick. Nothing happened other than a _clang_ and a bruised toe.

Leia fixed him with an ironic look. "Feel better?" she asked sarcastically.

"Yeah!" Han snapped back. "Fantastic!"

Luke impatiently shoved the Corellian aside and ignited his lightsaber, sweat pouring into his eyes. The chamber was hotter than double noon on Tatooine now, he thought as he thrust the shining sapphire blade into the edge of the hatch all the way up to the hilt. He moved it around the edge of the small oval opening, working as quickly as he could. The door was thick and resisted his lightsaber, but nothing could long hold out against the blade of a Jedi's weapon; in only a few seconds, he'd made it most of the way around.

"Hurry it up, kid," Han panted, his hair and shirt almost entirely soaked with perspiration. More garbage burst into flame behind them.

"Almost…there," Luke grunted, blinking stinging drops out of his eyes.

Eternal seconds later, Luke succeeded in making a complete circle with his lightsaber. As soon as he had deactivated the blade, Mara spun in a tight kick and knocked the hatch out of the way, flooding the roasting chamber with slightly cooler air from the passage beyond. The four of them jumped out of the incinerator just as the temperature reached its highest point yet and the garbage burst into flame behind them, along with the lower edge of Leia's gown and the back of Han's vest.

The smuggler rolled along the stone floor of the maintenance hallway, trying to smother the flames as Luke and Mara did the same for Leia. Han leaped up and whipped off his vest, beating it against the wall as Mara produced a small knife from somewhere and quickly sliced away the flaming section of Leia's gown. She hurled it back through the door of the incinerator, where it vanished in a puff of ash an instant later.

The four of them moved as fast as they could away from the open incinerator, and once they could no longer feel its heat, they collapsed in a heap across the blessedly cool stone of the hallway.

* * *

At the landing pad a few blocks from the palace where the _Millennium Falcon_ waited, Chewbacca paced impatiently in front of the open ramp of the ship. Han and the others should have been here by now!

The night sky was draped overhead like a jeweled blanket, beckoning the Wookiee up and away from the Imperials. Chewbacca had no love for the Empire, like most of its sensible citizens, but his was a special kind of hatred, since an Imperial bureaucrat had readily accepted his illegal sale from a Trandoshan slave-trader.

Despite the Emperor's galaxy-wide ban on slavery, one of the few things Chewbacca could grudgingly respect about him, it still went on in the less-policed sectors of the galaxy, wherever anyone sadistic enough to make a profit off their fellow sentient beings thought they could get away with it.

Still, Chewbacca reflected as he watched all approaches to the landing pad with anxious eyes, despite his mistreatment, he never would have met Han otherwise, and he did not regret his association with the cocky smuggler.

Now if he would just hurry up and get here! Chewbacca knew it would be difficult enough getting out of the Alderaan system with Vader's fleet lurking around in orbit, but it would be doubly hard if the Star Destroyers knew they were coming.

His sharp ears picked up multiple running footsteps, and he saw the shapes a moment later, moving quickly towards him. His first impression was the color white, and Chewbacca raised his bowcaster, hoping they weren't stormtroopers.

He saw hair in the next instant as the rapidly moving group of people passed under a glowlamp a dozen meters or so from the _Falcon_, and Chewbacca lowered his weapon as he recognized Winter and Bail Organa.

He growled an urgent interrogative as the two humans he recognized and several more he did not hurried up to the _Falcon_. Bail and the others went right up the ramp without pausing, but Winter stopped to talk to Chewbacca.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand you," Winter said politely, looking up at the towering Wookiee.

Chewbacca grunted in frustration and bellowed up the ramp for the protocol droid to come over.

"Oh, what is it, Chewbacca?" Threepio demanded as he shuffled down the ramp. "Your howling is going to alert the Empire!"

Chewbacca gruffly told the droid to shut up and growled his earlier question at him, indicating that he translate.

Threepio looked over at Winter with as close to an expression of pride as he could manage with his immobile metal face. "I would be happy to translate," the droid said unhurriedly. "I am fluent in more than six million forms of communication, and I-"

Chewbacca irritably cut him off, growling his question _again._

Threepio looked up at him indignantly. "There's no call for your barbaric behavior, you half-witted oaf! Alderaan is a civilized planet and we have certain-"

Increasingly agitated, Chewbacca bared his fangs and roared in the protocol droid's face, causing him to emit an electronic squeak of terror.

Winter's unflappable calm hadn't wavered an iota during the display, and she gently touched Threepio's metal arm. "What did he say?" she asked him.

With a last, suspicious look at Chewbacca, Threepio turned to the Alderaanian woman and attempted to compose himself. "Chewbacca inquired as to the location of Captain Solo and the others," he said, glancing nervously back at the huge Wookiee.

"We were separated in the tunnels," Winter replied, looking up at Chewbacca. "They should be right behind us."

Threepio turned to Chewbacca and began to repeat Winter's statement in growls and barks, before the Wookiee cuffed the droid on the back and irritably replied that he understood _her_ just fine.

He asked if Winter and the others had been followed, and waited while Threepio relayed his question in rather flowery language, causing the Wookiee to frown at the droid.

"No, we weren't," Winter answered. "I made sure of it. We can take off as soon as Princess Leia and the others arrive."

Chewbacca looked over her head at the dark city beyond, softly murmuring to himself.

Threepio dutifully relayed what he had said. "Chewbacca says that he hopes they come soon, though he was rather coarse in his choice of language."

The Wookiee irritably smacked the droid on the back, hard enough to knock him a few steps up the ramp, and growled for Threepio to shut up.

"I'm only trying to do my job," Threepio said in a hurt tone, causing Chewbacca to slowly lean over and bare his fangs at the droid. Threepio squeaked in terror again and scuttled back into the _Falcon_, greeted with electronic ridicule from R2-D2.

Winter quietly slipped past him, and Chewbacca returned to his vigil, silently wishing his friends speed.

* * *

Han looked warily around a corner, and upon seeing no one in the featureless stretch of hallway, waved the others over.

"Now, if we can just avoid any more female advice," he remarked, "we ought to be able to get outta here."

The princess's eyes flared with irritation, and she shoved past Mara, headed right for Han. Luke wisely edged away from him, not wanting to catch shrapnel from the hole Leia was about to tear into the Corellian.

Leia glared at the smuggler and stepped in front of him. "Listen," she snapped, "I don't know who you are or where you came from, but from now on, you do as _I_ tell you, okay?"

Han looked incredulously over at Luke, and, finding no support there, turned back to Leia. "Look, Your Worshipfulness," he said indignantly, "let's get one thing straight. I take orders from just one person." He pointed to himself with one hand. "Me!"

"It's a wonder you're still alive," Leia replied dryly. "Let's go," she said to the others, walking at a brisk pace off down the corridor without looking back.

"No reward is worth this," Han muttered to himself, glancing over at Luke.

The young Jedi shrugged and gave him a _you asked for it_ expression, moving off to try and catch up to the princess. Mara just smirked at him.

_Lots of zeroes_, Han thought to himself, sighing. _Lots and lots._

* * *

Several minutes later, as they finally neared the garage, Luke heard an unmistakable sound: that of one lightsaber crashing against another. He increased speed, dreading what he'd see ahead, and stopped short at the place where the corridor opened up into the wide, cavernous garage, where a bright red light and a similar blue one immediately attracted his attention.

"Ben?" he said softly, looking over at the crossed lightsabers.

His master stood locked in combat with none other than Darth Vader, an expression of concentration on his bearded face. Obi-Wan was wounded in a few places, and pain hid at the edges of his face, but he'd managed to land a few hits on his opponent, as well. A damaged system in Vader's mechanical arm shot sparks periodically, and his long black cloak was in tatters, a large section next to his wounded arm sliced out in a wide slash.

Han's eyes widened as he saw what Luke was looking at, and he slapped the young Jedi's shoulder, gesturing quickly at the large door on the far side of the wide room, past several sets of pillars and a few ornate speeders.

Luke drew his lightsaber, intending to run over and help his master, but just then one of the speeders flew from the ground and flipped end over end to smash into the ferrocrete pillar behind Luke.

He was surprised; he hadn't thought Vader had seen them. He prepared to launch a speeder of his own right back, but a hand grabbed his collar and dragged him in the direction of the exit.

"Come on, kid!" Han said urgently. "We gotta go!"

Luke tugged free. "No! I have to help him!"

Han shouted in surprise as another speeder rolled over and tumbled at them. He tackled Luke out of the way, just as it was about to run the two of them over, but Luke's eyes were locked on the duel between Jedi and Sith, and he still struggled to run over even as he got up.

The smuggler grabbed him around the chest with one arm and held him back. "There's nothing you can do, kid!" he said. "You wanna get killed, too?"

"Let me go!" Luke shouted, struggling.

Their shouting finally attracted Obi-Wan's attention, and he paused, locking blades with the Dark Lord. He glanced over Vader's shoulder at them, his gaze stopping on Luke.

Han pulled the young Jedi out of the way of another flying speeder, this one smashing into the pillar beside the two men with the intent to crush them. The smuggler used his greater strength to pull Luke along for the exit, a resigned expression on his face, but still Luke struggled, determined to help his master.

Obi-Wan smiled sadly at him, still holding the Dark Lord back, and he suddenly broke away from Vader, stepping aside so that Vader's back faced Luke and Han. With a final sigh, he held his lightsaber up in front of himself in a gesture of surrender.

Vader shouted furiously and swept his lightsaber viciously through his old teacher, cutting the Jedi Master's robe in half.

But, Obi-Wan was mysteriously no longer in it, and the empty robe dropped to the ground along with his lightsaber.

"NO!" Luke shouted in shock, finally tugging free of Han's grip.

He couldn't believe what he'd just seen, couldn't believe that the Sith Master had just killed the man he considered his father rather than the monstrosity who had done the deed.

Vader stepped forward and prodded the empty robe with his boot, lightsaber still ignited in his hand. Slowly, he turned and looked back at the young Jedi, a curious expression on his face as Anakin and Luke Skywalker locked eyes for the first time, each seeing an odd reflection of himself.

Han jerked Luke away, breaking the eye contact. "Come _on_, kid!" he shouted in Luke's ear, shaking him.

Luke shook his head, clearing away the odd feeling that had come over him as he had looked into Vader's eyes, so similar to his own. He glanced over at the door to see Leia and Mara waiting, waving him on.

_Run, Luke!_ Obi-Wan's voice said in his mind, perhaps his imagination. _Run!_

Sensing the Sith Master's dark presence focusing on him, Luke sprinted for the door, trying to ignore the sound of running footsteps belonging to no one friendly to him drawing closer.

Han drew past him in the final dash for the exit, and he shot the control panel on his way in with a quick bolt from his blaster. Luke jumped headlong through the rapidly closing blast doors, rolling to his feet as they slammed closed with a deep _clang_ behind him.

He pulled himself up and ran with the others, pushing down his sorrow. Vader was right behind them, and if he didn't want to suffer the same fate as his master, Luke knew he had to hurry.

_I'm sorry, Ben_.

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: I've probably seen _A New Hope_ three or four dozen times over the course of my life, and I still feel like shouting right along with Luke in that scene every time. Poor Obi-Wan. Chapter 6 will be up tomorrow.


	6. The Truth, or Something Like It

**Six**  
(The Truth, or Something Like It)

Alerted to their presence, Imperial Stormtroopers chased Luke, Han, Leia, and Mara all the way back to the _Millennium Falcon_, shooting furiously at them.

The four of them sprinted as fast as they could through the streets of Aldera City, pausing only to shoot back at the troopers occasionally. Mara was by far the most accurate, picking off a pursuer with practically every shot. Luke Skywalker kept his lightsaber activated, batting the red bolts of energy back at the troopers in an attempt to keep the others covered whenever they stopped to shoot.

"Get her ready, Chewie!" Han Solo shouted into his comlink, ducking behind a large crate as an Imperial blaster bolt blew the top of it off. "We're coming in hot!"

Leia jumped out from behind her cover and sprinted across the street, firing three times as she ran. Two stormtroopers dropped with smoking holes in their armor, but they had plenty more behind them, seeming almost like ants swarming down the streets of Aldera.

Luke jumped acrobatically to avoid an incoming blaster bolt, his shining sapphire lightsaber leaping out upon his landing to deflect a bolt headed for Mara.

"Thanks," she said quickly, leaning under the blade to fire several shots in rapid succession. A trooper dropped for every bolt, and Luke nodded appreciatively, lightsaber held at the ready as he ran after her.

After what seemed like hours but was really only minutes, the four of them rounded a corner to see the welcome sight of the _Millennium Falcon_ waiting for them, engines rumbling impatiently. Winter was waiting for them at the top of the lowered ramp, and Chewbacca's enormous was furry shape visible through the cockpit windows; both beckoned them aboard with urgent waving.

As Leia and Han charged up the ramp, the smuggler heading immediately up to the cockpit, Luke and Mara continued their sprint, the red-haired Rebel firing behind her as she ran and the young Jedi actually running backwards, swatting blaster bolts away from himself with his lightsaber.

Seeing Mara dive up the ramp behind him, Luke began to turn around to run at top speed, but just then he noticed some stormtroopers scrambling to a stop, attempting to set up an E-Web blaster cannon.

Luke waved for Han to take off, and the _Falcon _slowly lifted into the air, but as the bottom of the still-extended ramp reached three meters off the ground, Luke hurled his lightsaber at the blaster cannon, sending it into a spin.

The young Jedi back-flipped three meters into the air, landing on the edge of the _Falcon's_ ramp as his thrown saber spun through the E-Web and the stormtroopers manning it. With a tug of the Force, the lightsaber flew back into Luke's hand just as the ramp began to close.

Moving slowly against the terrific acceleration as the _Falcon_ screamed out of Alderaan's atmosphere, Luke made his way into the common area, looking around at the faces which suddenly turned to watch him approach.

"Nice timing, kid!" Han called back from the cockpit. "I thought we were gonna leave you behind there for a second."

Bail Organa looked over at Luke from his seat behind the dejarik board next to his wife and Leia. "Where is Master Kenobi?" he asked, looking behind Luke.

The young Jedi shook his head sadly, dropping into the nearest chair. He buckled his crash webbing, bracing himself as Han made a sharp turn to avoid fire from a Star Destroyer in orbit.

"Vader killed him," Leia said quietly. "He sacrificed himself so we could get away."

Bail's face fell, as did those of everyone else aboard. Even the droids managed to look downcast. Mara was within reach of Luke, and she reached out to pat his shoulder reassuringly. He glanced up at her, nodding gratefully.

"Hey, Red!" Han shouted from the cockpit. "You and Luke get into the turrets! We're not outta here yet!"

Mara touched Luke's shoulder, unbuckling her crash webbing, and she gestured to the ladder leading to the _Falcon_'s quad-lasers. Luke followed her, going down as she went up, and he dropped into the chair below him, settling himself in.

The controls for the turrets were fairly simple and extremely responsive, as Luke discovered when he experimented a little, trying to get a feel for the weapon. The viewport outside the turret provided an expansive view of Alderaan below and the _Falcon_'s ventral side. It also gave Luke a good look at a squad of approaching TIE fighters, their spherical cockpits wedged between two large rectangular solar panels.

Luke pulled on the headset he saw hanging on a small hook off to his side and turned it on, providing him a link with Mara as well as the cockpit.

"_Two from above,_" Mara's voice said in his ear.

"_Watch out for the two coming up behind us,_" Han warned from the cockpit. _"I'll try and hold her steady, but we're dodging turbolasers out here._"

"Got it," Luke said, dropping both hands down to the firing controls. A green lance of turbolaser fire shot past his viewport as if to punctuate Han's statement, making Luke avert his eyes from its blinding brilliance.

When he recovered, Luke swung his turret around and pumped a quick series of bolts at the nearest TIE fighter, which swerved out of the way before answering with a few green bolts of its own.

As Han flipped the _Falcon_ on its side to avoid more turbolaser fire from the surrounding Star Destroyers, Luke suddenly found himself in the perfect vector to fire at one of the buzzing TIE fighters, swarming like gnats around the freighter. He squeezed the firing controls and splashed laser fire over its solar panel, making the fighter lose control and spin crazily to one side.

From above, Mara drove another TIE fighter into the one Luke had wounded with a withering barrage of bolts from her own turret. The two fighters vanished in a bright fireball, but the defenders had already moved on to their next targets.

Luke pursued a TIE with a hail of bolts from his turret, but the pilot was surprisingly skillful and managed to avoid them, spinning his blocky-winged fighter through a dizzying series of maneuvers. Finally, though, he swerved to avoid a turbolaser shot and ran right into Luke's pattern of fire, erupting in a fiery explosion.

"Ha! Gotcha!" Luke crowed, already moving on for his next target.

Above, Mara quickly blasted away another TIE fighter with deadly-accurate fire, impressing Luke once again with her marksmanship. Did the girl _ever_ miss?

In the cockpit, Han and Chewbacca twisted the _Falcon_ though a dizzying corkscrew, green turbolasers blurring with black space and the shining blue jewel of Alderaan below as the smuggler and the Wookiee maneuvered their battered old freighter as though it were a nimble fighter. Luke had to close his eyes to avoid being sick.

When their flight finally stabilized, Luke saw with surprise that more than a dozen Star Destroyers besides the _Executor_ had gathered around Alderaan.

"_They really mean business!_" Han said from the cockpit. Chewbacca roared agreement. "_Hold on, kids, we're going to try to break the blockade. Shoot whenever you can._"

"_Acknowledged,"_ Mara said from above. The dull thump of her turret resumed a few moments later, punctuated by two quick explosions as she somehow kept firing accurately despite Han's wild maneuvering.

Luke slowed his breathing, half-closing his eyes as he opened himself up to the Force. His hands moved the controls of his turret, his senses sharpening to the point that time itself almost seemed to move slower. He could hear every sound in the ship, down to the servomotors in Threepio's arms as he bickered with Artoo even now, and even the slow, steady breathing of Mara in the turret above him as she methodically picked off TIE fighters. He could sense her in the Force, he realized, drawing on it perhaps unconsciously as she focused with laser precision on her task.

His momentary distraction only lasted a second of real time, and Luke pulled himself back to his turret, letting the Force flow through him. He saw the enemy fighters through the Force, could sense the pilots inside, and squeezed the firing controls, spraying bolts out in a seemingly random pattern. A few of the pilots ignored his fire, and this proved to be a costly mistake. The Imperial pilots did not waver their formation even slightly, and thus several of them flew right into the bolts Luke had fired, which struck their weak points with uncanny accuracy. Five fighters blew apart in as many seconds, some catching their wingmates in their explosions.

"Double the front deflectors," Han said to Chewie in the cockpit, probably unaware Luke could hear them. "As soon as we make it past the _Executor_, get ready to jump to lightspeed. We'll have to do a couple random jumps after that to throw 'em off our trail, and then…" The smuggler paused for a moment, and Luke could almost see him shrug. "I don't know, I guess we'll head for the Rebel base, wherever it is. We're in this now whether we like it or not_._"

Chewbacca growled something affirmative, flipping switches as he did so.

Above, Mara blasted two more TIE fighters, swiveling her turret in pursuit of a third. "_One coming your way, Luke_," she said through the headset.

Luke acknowledged, lining the fighter up in his sights, and just as he fired, Mara did the same. Both their shots hit the Imperial fighter at the same time, and the combined fire ripped through the fighter's propulsion system, making it spin out of control before blowing apart.

"_That's the last one I see in range,_" Mara said. "_We're coming up on the blockade._"

Han flipped the _Falcon_ in a tight barrel roll, dodging turbolaser fire from Vader's flagship, and with a sudden roar from the freighter's powerful engines, they shot forward at an incredible rate of speed, almost too fast for the gunners on the _Executor_ to track.

Even pushing the sublight engines as fast as they would go, it still took several moments to fly along the length of the massive Super Star Destroyer, and the gunners on the flagship shot as fast as they could, trying to catch the surprisingly agile freighter. Luke and Mara shot back at the heavy guns, occasionally managing to hit one and throw its bolts off course, and almost faster than they realized, they were suddenly past the huge cobalt warship.

"Hit it!" Han said, and Chewbacca growled as he pulled back the hyperspace lever. The stars blurred and warped around them, and the _Millennium Falcon_ vanished.

* * *

Darth Vader stared at the flashes high above through the front viewport of his shuttle as his fleet tried to stop the YT-1300 from escaping. The pilot shifted nervously at the close proximity of the Sith Master, but Vader ignored him, following the freighter with both his eyes and the Force.

He could sense the young man he'd seen in the garage aboard it, drawing deeply on the Force as he concentrated. He was certainly powerful, that much was for certain. Though his skills were still rough and unrefined, Vader could sense that Obi-Wan's student had great potential, perhaps even equal to that of the Sith Master himself. He'd never encountered another Force-sensitive as powerful as he was aside from Darth Nova before, and Vader was intrigued.

Who was this young man? Where had Obi-Wan found him?

Vader frowned as he thought about his old teacher. Killing Obi-Wan hadn't brought him the satisfaction he'd thought it would, and the whole encounter had tipped him too far into the Dark Side. He would have to spend several hours in meditation once he got back to the _Executor_ to attempt to bring himself back into balance. But seeing Obi-Wan again had brought up a whole host of painful memories, and Vader's thoughts were clouded, causing him to lose track of the Corellian freighter as it finally managed to evade the fleet and jumped to hyperspace.

Moments later, the comm unit activated, displaying the blue-skinned face and pressed white uniform of Grand Admiral Thrawn. "_My apologies, Lord Vader,_" Thrawn said. "_The fugitives managed to escape us._"

Vader waved a hand dismissively, distractedly staring at the point where the freighter bearing Obi-Wan's student had vanished. "No matter," he replied. "My agent is aboard their ship. I will follow their homing beacon with the _Executor_ once I arrive."

"_Shall we accompany you, Lord Vader?_" Thrawn asked. "_With the Organas aboard, they will likely head for the Rebel base. I can have the fleet ready to leave within the hour."_

"No," Vader said, looking down at Thrawn's screen. "Remain here and stabilize the situation. I will pursue the Rebels; the _Executor_ is more than capable of destroying the Rebel base by itself."

Thrawn nodded sharply. "_As you wish, my lord,_" he said.

Vader leaned over and cut the connection, and the small screen went black. He turned to the pilot. "Alert the _Executor_ to come about and make ready to enter hyperspace," he said. "I want to leave as soon as we arrive."

The pilot nodded crisply, reaching for the comm unit as he replied. "Yes, my lord."

Vader straightened and went to the back of the shuttle, intending to try to fix his damaged arm before they arrived. He preferred to work on his prosthetic himself, not that he distrusted the technicians aboard his flagship. He was simply more skilled than they were.

He frowned again as he sat down and pulled up his sleeve, pulling off his glove next. Why had Obi-Wan surrendered? More importantly, why had he vanished upon his death? He'd never seen anything like that happen upon a Jedi's death before, and he'd been present for dozens of them, many at his own hand.

Vader pulled out Obi-Wan's lightsaber and stared at it, all that was left of the old Jedi Master. What had he meant when he said he would become more powerful upon his death? Had he discovered some hidden secret of the Force during his exile? Had he taught it to his student, whoever he was?

The Sith Master adjusted a damaged system in his arm, thinking again of Obi-Wan's mysterious pupil. There had been something oddly familiar about the young man, some kind of connection he'd sensed when their eyes had met across the garage.

Darth Vader decided to devote his resources to uncovering the young man's identity. Once his agent was finally able to report in without violating cover, he would have more information, but he had no idea how long that would take. Direct communication would be too risky, so the agent would likely record a message and leave it somewhere for Vader to find.

Until then, he was left with a mystery, and he hated mysteries.

* * *

"All right," Han Solo said, walking back into the common area of his ship, "we're on course for those coordinates you gave me. I made a few random jumps, so they shouldn't be able to track us."

Leia nodded gratefully. "Thank you, Captain Solo," she said. "I will see to it that you are well compensated for your services when we reach our base."

Han briefly considered asking her to call him by his first name, but with her parents sitting right next to her, he decided it wouldn't be a good idea. He still grinned but said, "Thanks, Princess," instead.

"We are very grateful to you, Captain Solo," Queen Breha said. "We owe you our lives."

_And some money,_ Han thought, but he didn't say it out loud. Instead, he just grinned again. As Leia's parents looked back at their daughter, Han thought to himself that it was odd how she didn't really look like either of them or any of Breha's sisters. _Maybe she takes after her father's side of the family,_ Han thought.

Han saw Luke sitting in one of the chairs next to the console, looking pretty depressed, and he walked over to give the kid a consoling pat on the shoulder. "Hey, sorry about Obi-Wan," he said. "He was a crazy old fossil, but he was a good guy. I was sorry to see him go like that."

Luke nodded, attempting to smile but not quite making it. "Thanks, Han," he said quietly.

"Another reason to hate Darth Vader," Leia said bitterly. "I cannot believe that man was ever Anakin Skywalker."

Han frowned. He didn't really want to bring it up, but it had to be said. "Speaking of Skywalkers," he said, looking down at Luke, "I think you've got some explaining to do, kid."

Mara looked over at Han curiously. "What do you mean?" she said, straightening from where she had been leaning against the dejarik table.

Luke heaved a sad sigh, looking over at the others. "My name is Luke Skywalker," he said. "Anakin Skywalker is my…" He paused, obviously uncomfortable. "He's my father."

"What?" Leia, Mara, and, surprisingly, Winter, said simultaneously.

Oddly, Bail Organa did not react, and Han thought this to be a bit suspicious.

"How is that possible?" Leia said, looking at Luke with the slightest hint of suspicion. "I thought Jedi didn't have children."

Luke shifted in his seat, looking down at the deck plating. "Well, Anakin was never a conventional Jedi, was he?" he said bitterly. He glanced up at the others briefly before returning his gaze to a spot on the floor. "Obi-Wan told me about it," he said quietly. "Anakin married my mother in secret, and nobody knew about the marriage until he…" He trailed off. "Obi-Wan says he was there when I was born, and he brought me to Tatooine to keep me away from Vader and Palpatine. I don't think Vader knows about me."

"Who was your mother?" Winter asked gently, her calm returned.

"Obi-Wan said her name was Padmé," Luke replied. "She was from Naboo."

"You don't mean… Senator Amidala, do you?" Leia asked, surprised. "I've always looked up to her, and I've heard rumors that she was pregnant when she died, but…" She shook her head. "I didn't know they were true. Anakin Skywalker was really her husband?"

Luke nodded silently.

Han had been watching Bail Organa during the conversation, and Leia's father had been conspicuously unsurprised during the entire exchange. Did he know something about this?

Mara shook her head in disbelief. "I can't believe Darth Vader is your father," she said, looking at Luke.

Luke jumped to his feet, anger on his face. "That monster is _not_ my father!" he said vehemently. "As far as I'm concerned, Anakin died in the Purges, and that… that _creature_ is just a demon with his face."

Mara held up her hands. "Okay, okay. You're right."

Luke sighed, looking over at her with an apologetic expression. "I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have yelled at you. It's not your fault."

Mara shrugged. "Hey, it's all right. I'd be upset about it, too."

Leia rose from her seat and walked over to Luke, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry," she said. "I can't imagine how hard this must be for you."

Luke nodded quietly, trying to smile gratefully, but Han's attention was still fixed on Bail. The Viceroy's face became studiously neutral, as did his wife's, and Han's eyes narrowed in suspicion; the two of them _definitely_ knew something, and were doing their best to hide it.

"How much longer is it to Yavin?" Bail asked.

"'Nother few hours," Han said, glancing at one of the small screens on the console behind Luke. "There's cabins in the back, if you want to get some rest."

"I think we will," Bail said, standing. "Please, excuse us." He and Breha left, going off to the back where Leia's aunts already were.

Han also decided to leave, and he gestured for Mara to follow him into the cockpit. Once they were inside, Han sat down next to Chewbacca and swiveled his chair to face the back of the room.

"Close the door," he said as Mara entered. She punched a button on the frame, and the cockpit door hissed closed.

"Okay, Red," he said once she sat down in the chair behind him. "You were stationed on Alderaan for a while, right?" She nodded, and he leaned forward in his chair slightly. "How much do you know about the Organas?"

Mara shrugged. "Not much. I wasn't assigned to the palace; that was Winter's position. She's been Leia's servant for most of her life, and she joined the Rebellion at about the same time the Princess did. The whole movement was partially Bail's idea anyway, so I don't think he was surprised when Leia asked him if she could join. She's been using her position as Senator to help consolidate the various cells into one organization."

"How much do you know about Leia?" Han asked.

Mara shrugged again. "You know her about as well as I do. Winter would be the better person to ask, since I haven't spent a whole lot of time with her."

Han leaned back in his chair. "All right," he said. "Thanks anyway, Red. You can go."

Mara nodded and left, her footsteps almost military-regular as she went back into the main area of the ship.

Chewbacca asked Han what he was thinking.

"Ah, nothing," Han replied. "I think Bail is hiding something, but it's probably none of my business." He swiveled his chair around, staring out at the swirling blue tunnel of hyperspace. "So," he said to his friend, "what are we going to do once we get to Yavin? Find a place to lay low for a while?"

Chewbacca barked a reply, woofing softly as he glanced down at one of the readouts.

Han frowned. "Yeah, I figured you'd say that. I think we should look up Doc and Jessa, maybe hide out with them for a while. I've been thinking about having them augment our shields again; we could use a little extra protection on the back quarter, especially."

The Wookiee growled reprovingly, looking over at Han.

"Oh, don't give me that," Han said, not meeting his friend's eyes. "We're not revolutionaries, we're smugglers. I don't think we should get involved."

Chewbacca said Han's name in his language quietly, murmuring a further phrase.

Han groaned, turning to glance back through the cockpit doorway. "Ah, they don't need us," he said. "And we don't need them. We're in enough trouble anyway." He drummed his fingers on his knee briefly. "Jabba's probably posted a bounty on us already. You know he'll try to get Fett for the job, and that guy is bad news."

All the more reason to stay with the Rebellion, Chewie said, growling quietly. Where else were they going to find a better place to hide?

Han sighed, blowing air out through his teeth. "I don't know," he said finally. "I'll think about it."

* * *

Darth Vader sat cross-legged in the middle of the main room of his quarters, looking at the wall that was covered with lightsabers, most specifically at the newest addition, that of Obi-Wan Kenobi's.

The lights were off, and he sat in blue-tinted darkness, the only light in the black-decorated room coming from the viewport on one wall, showing the coruscating tunnel of hyperspace.

_You are troubled,_ a voice said in his mind.

Vader was briefly surprised before he recognized the Jedi he'd captured aboard Princess Leia's ship. _I am_, he answered silently, surprised that she had been able to sense his thoughts.

_It's not like it was hard to tell,_ Malysa Kolos thought to him. _You're not exactly hiding it. I'm surprised the whole ship can't sense it._

Vader was silent for a moment, thinking on what to do. She'd never willingly initiated a conversation before, and he didn't want to waste the opportunity. Was she finally beginning to see things his way? He knew he would have to be careful.

_Things on Alderaan did not go as I expected,_ he answered finally, deciding to be honest. _I was not able to maintain my balance._

_What do you mean?_ Malysa asked.

_I let the Dark Side control my actions more than I should have,_ Vader replied. _Even after this long, balance is still difficult. But,_ he continued_, that is the way of the Force. You must keep yourself at the dividing line between Dark and Light, and not let yourself be pulled too far in either direction, for neither side holds all the answers._

Malysa was silent for a long moment, though he did not sense her withdrawing from the contact. _So,_ she 'said' finally, _you think the Dark Side and the Light Side are two halves of a greater whole?_

_Correct,_ Vader answered.

_So why do you use the name of the Sith? They are dedicated to following the Dark Side. That's hardly a balance._

_I am truly neither Sith nor Jedi,_ Vader replied. _Neither order had the correct view of the Force, but each had pieces of the answer in their teachings. I use the Sith name and the title Darth Sidious gave me because that is what I had to do to ensure stability at the beginning of my reign. The order I have established are not true Sith, not as Palpatine would have trained them, if he cultivated other followers at all._

_An ancient Sith Lord instituted a teaching called the Rule of Two to conceal his order from the Jedi,_ Vader continued. _This meant that for a thousand years, only two Sith were ever in existence at a time, a Master and an Apprentice. It was the duty of the Apprentice to slay the Master and take his place when he was ready, and when I still considered myself a Sith Lord I did this._

_You killed Palpatine?_ Malysa asked in surprise. _But the Empire has claimed that a Jedi killed him ever since you became the Emperor. You used that as your reason to hunt down the Jedi that survived Order 66._

_Only I knew the truth,_ Vader 'said', deciding to entrust her with the secret of how he had come into power. If he was successful, she would take it as a sign that he trusted her and she would begin to do the same for him. _The Empire needed an enemy, something to work against to ensure its own survival, so I gave it one. Palpatine had already laid the groundwork, and I was forced to follow his plan initially. But over time, I have moved away from what he had intended the Empire to be, until now, when it is nearing what the old Republic should have been._

_Palpatine would have ruled the galaxy with an iron fist,_ Vader continued. _He would have used fear to keep the people in line. Even during the Clone Wars, he was plotting this, and he commissioned a terrible weapon capable of destroying planets. He had already begun construction of this battle station when he declared himself Emperor. I have no doubt that he would have used it._

He could sense Malysa thinking; she'd learned most of this in the archives he'd given her access to already, so she knew he was telling the truth.

_What did you do with the battle station?_ she asked him.

_I had it destroyed, _Vader answered. _I had no intention of ever using such a thing. I executed the man who had convinced Palpatine to build it when he tried to have me assassinated. He intended to seize rulership of the Empire for himself, and I am certain he would have been as bad as Palpatine, if not worse._

_But you still use fear,_ Malysa countered. _I've seen a few of your public executions. Most citizens fear you rather than respect you._

_Only those who are hiding some disloyalty, _Vader replied. _I am trying to make the Empire the greatest civilization the galaxy has ever seen, and the constant interference of the Rebels is a threat to stability. Some people only understand force, so I must remind them occasionally that I am not afraid to use it._

_I am not the evil your Jedi Master depicted me to be,_ Vader 'said', sounding sincere. _True, I have killed Jedi. I will not deny this. But ask yourself this, Malysa: have not the Jedi tried to kill me, as well? You must have seen reports of some of the assassination attempts. If the Jedi are supposed to be an order devoted to peace, why have they tried so fervently to destroy anyone who does not share their beliefs?_

Again, the young woman did not reply, but he could sense her inner turmoil as she thought about what he had said. Wordlessly, she broke contact, but Vader knew the seed of doubt had been further watered. He had done this dozens of times before, and he knew exactly what to say to convince Jedi to his cause, especially younger ones, already having typical adolescent questions about themselves and their place in the universe.

Soon, he would have another loyal follower, and then he could concentrate his efforts on turning Obi-Wan's student next. Such a powerful individual was worth twenty regular Force-sensitives, perhaps more, and the more power Vader had at his command, the larger his chance of being successful in his final objective.

* * *

The planet Yavin was a tremendous orange gas-giant, but it had several habitable moons, and the fourth of these was where the Rebels had hidden themselves, here in as remote a system as Han could think of, save perhaps some others on the Outer Rim. The databank said some ancient, long-forgotten people had built a series of pyramidal stone temples on Yavin IV's surface, and it was to the largest of these the Rebel flight controller directed the _Millennium Falcon_.

The saucer-shaped vessel swooped low over the leafy jungle canopy, startling a flock of avians into flight as the powerful sublight engines blasted the taller limbs in an artificial windstorm behind them.

Han and Chewbacca looked for a good place to land, following the directions of the flight controller as she switched on a locator beacon. The huge ziggurat had an expansive hangar in its lower level, but it was full of fighter craft, so Han and Chewie parked their freighter in a wide clearing the Rebels had cut outside the entrance to their hangar, out of the way of the yawning black opening.

Once they had touched down, Leia came forward, still dressed in the scorched white gown missing a large section over her leg that she'd had on since Alderaan. She didn't have a change of clothes, since she'd brought nothing with her and neither had her family, and she'd politely refused Han's offer of one of his spare shirts and pants. She seemed proud of the scorch marks, almost, which looked like they had been caused by an electrical discharge of some kind.

"Thank you for bringing us here, Captain Solo," she said, looking down at him gratefully.

Han leaned back in his pilot's chair and interlaced his fingers behind his head. "Call me Han," he said, grinning. Although she'd had a rather sarcastic demeanor during her rescue, the princess had grown on him, and he found that he was beginning to like her despite himself. She had spirit, and you had to respect that.

"Very well, Han," Leia said. She looked between him and Chewbacca. "On behalf of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, I would like to offer you both the opportunity to join us. You've been a great help to us, and we could use people of your talents."

Chewbacca growled his willingness, but said that the final decision was ultimately Han's. The smuggler himself shrugged and said that he was still thinking about it.

"Now, about my reward…" he said, dropping his hands to his knees as he leaned forward slightly.

Leia frowned disappointedly. "Is that all you care about, money?"

"Hey!" Han said defensively. "I'm not motivated purely by greed, Your Highnessness." He gestured upwards, in the direction of space. "I've got a pretty big debt hanging over my head, here, and if I don't pay off Jabba the Hutt, I'm a dead man."

Leia said nothing for a moment, still seeming disappointed. "Very well, Captain Solo," she said finally. "I'll see to it that you are suitably compensated."

With that, she spun on her heel and walked right out of his ship. Han started after her, but saw Bail Organa looking in his direction and decided against it. He frowned as the Alderaanians filed off the _Falcon,_ accompanied by their droids.

Han walked part of the way into the main area of the ship, but hung back when he saw Luke exchanging a quiet word with Mara, that twitterpated look on his face again. The kid had been making eyes at the red-haired Rebel since the first time he'd seen her, and Han was pretty sure he'd seen a reciprocating look or two from her occasionally. The Corellian grinned to himself. _Kids_, he thought.

Finally, Luke happened to glance up and see Han, and he straightened, clearing his throat embarrassedly. He extended a hand to Mara, a sudden professionalism in his tone.

"It's been nice working with you," he said, eliciting a brief confused expression from Mara until she also noticed Han.

"Likewise," she said, shaking Luke's hand with just a hint of amusement. She slung her duffel over her shoulder and walked off down the ramp, glancing once back at Luke before she set off for the huge stone temple.

Luke looked up at Han nervously, and the smuggler was unable to keep a straight face. Finally, he walked over and slapped Luke on the back, chuckling. "It's been nice working with you, junior," he said, snickering.

"Shut up," Luke said, blushing.

Han just laughed harder.

* * *

"We've triangulated the signal from the beacon, my lord. The Rebels are in the Yavin system."

"Acknowledged. Set course immediately."

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: Oh, no! You get to stew over that cliffhanger for a couple days, too, since I spotted something in Chapter 7 that needs to be fixed, so it'll be a little while before I resume posting. It'll give you all a chance to catch your breath. Much thanks to all readers and reviewers.


	7. The Battle of Yavin

**Seven**  
(The Battle of Yavin)

"General Dodonna, I'd like you to meet Luke Skywalker," Princess Leia said, gesturing to the young Jedi.

Luke, dressed in his tan and brown robes with his lightsaber hanging from his belt in plain sight, bowed his head as the Alliance general looked him over. General Dodonna was a tall man, perhaps Obi-Wan's age or older, with a thick gray beard and hair the same color, a few steaks of his original darker color still visible here and there.

The three of them were in the 'war room' of the Rebel base at Yavin IV, a small, claustrophobic chamber lined with monitors and maps of the system. Alliance technicians murmured to each other, but it was mostly quiet around Luke, Leia, and the general.

"Leia tells me Obi-Wan Kenobi was your teacher," Dodonna said, looking over at Luke with kind dark eyes. "I served with him in the Clone Wars." He lowered his voice. "And… your father as well," he said, a hint of sympathy in his tone.

"You don't have to worry about me, General," Luke said, shrugging under his long brown robe. "The way I see it, Darth Vader killed Anakin Skywalker during the Purges like he did all the other Jedi."

Dodonna nodded slowly. "I understand, son." He straightened and turned to one of the glowing displays on the wall behind them. "We could use a Jedi right now," he said. "The Empire is getting more aggressive in its pursuit, and we are hard-pressed to keep the location of our fleet a secret." He looked over at Luke. "As Leia has told you, we are gathering forces to begin confronting the Empire directly. Many on the Outer Rim are sympathetic to our cause, and we would begin our offensive by driving the Empire off of those worlds."

He placed a hand on Luke's shoulder, a serious expression on his face beneath his beard. "I am sorry to place so much responsibility on one so young, but you are the only Jedi we have at the moment, Luke. There are a hundred places we could use you."

Luke nodded. "I think I was close to the end of my training with Obi-Wan, but there's still a lot I don't know about the Force." He met Dodonna's eyes, adopting a determined expression. "I'll help out wherever I can, though. I want to defeat the Empire as much as you do."

General Dodonna smiled tightly. "I don't doubt it, son. I don't doubt it." He gestured to the exit from the war room. "I understand you're a good pilot, as well?" Luke nodded, and Dodonna patted him on the back. "All right, let's get you familiar with our fighters. Have you ever flown an X-wing before?"

* * *

"All sections indicate battle readiness, my lord," an aide reported to Darth Vader.

"Very good," the Sith Master replied. "How much further to the Yavin system?"

The aide consulted a datapad and looked back up at the Dark Lord. "Twenty minutes, my lord," he said.

Vader nodded once. "Dismissed."

The Dark Lord of the Sith clasped his hands together beneath his long black cloak and resumed his pacing along the command walkway on the bridge of the Super Star Destroyer _Executor_, watching hyperspace boil and shift outside the large transparisteel viewports. The officers in the sunken crew pits on either side of the walkway glanced up at him nervously sometimes, intimidated at being in the presence of the Emperor himself, but they kept to their duties, knowing Lord Vader despised incompetence above all else.

Vader himself was preoccupied with thoughts of the young Jedi he'd encountered on Alderaan, pondering his origin. Although he had sensed that the boy had received some training from Obi-Wan, he still radiated raw power on a level exceeded only by Galen Marek, better known to the galaxy as Darth Nova, Vader's official Sith Apprentice. The Starkiller, as he'd been dubbed by some of the troops after his most spectacular act of destruction, was the only being the Sith Master had ever encountered who was more powerful than himself, not that he'd ever let Nova know that.

Ordinary Force-sensitives -if any who wielded the greatest power in the universe could be called 'ordinary'- were as insects before the incredible power of Darth Nova, Obi-Wan's mysterious student, and Vader himself. The three of them working together would be completely unstoppable, Vader thought. He impatiently awaited the report from his double agent within the Rebellion so that he could learn more about the young man.

"Inform the troopers to set their weapons to stun," Vader said in the direction of one of his officers. "I want prisoners, not corpses."

"Yes, my lord," the officer said, rushing off to obey.

"I will be in my quarters," Vader said, marching off the bridge. "Alert me when we exit hyperspace."

* * *

Malysa Kolos paced like a caged animal in her quarters on the _Executor._ Her thoughts were in turmoil, and she was more conflicted now than she'd ever been in her life.

She'd been taught about the Light Side of the Force since she was a little girl by her Jedi Master, but Lord Vader was making a lot of sense in his talk about balance in the Force. It had always been a struggle for her to restrain her emotions, to keep her calm during battle, so to hear Vader tell her that such restraint was unnecessary and unnatural was very tempting.

But, she'd been told of all the horrible things the Sith Lord had done, how he'd murdered children during the fall of the old Republic when he assaulted the Jedi Temple under orders from Palpatine, slaughtered dozens who had once called him comrade and friend. She'd seen the dozens of lightsabers in his quarters herself, heard it from his own mouth that he'd killed every one of the Jedi whose weapons he'd taken as trophies.

But, she'd seen the files on Palpatine, as well, and when Vader had told her that Darth Sidious would have been a much more vicious and brutal Emperor, she knew that to be the truth as well. The Death Star had been a reality, and would have been out there, a constant threat to the people of the galaxy, if Darth Vader had not taken his personal flagship at the time to the facility where it was being built and bombed it into oblivion. Vader was not a wasteful spender, using huge amounts of the Empire's credits in developing obscenely powerful weapons and on himself as Sidious would have; in fact, the only permanent residence he maintained was the _Executor_ itself. The Chancellor's mansion back on Coruscant was occupied by Grand Vizier Sate Pestage, the bureaucrat who ran the administrative part of the Empire under Vader's supervision.

Malysa sighed in frustration. The arguments for and against accepting Vader's offer were equally strong. Aside from their brief duel, in which it had to be admitted that _she_ had attacked_ him_, and he had not been the one to finally defeat her, Lord Vader had been nothing but civil to her, giving her quarters instead of sending her to the brig, and offering her full run of the ship except restricted sections, which she had so far not done, remaining in her rooms by her own choice.

However, he had killed both her master and her fellow student before she had managed to extricate herself from her hiding place on the _Tantive IV,_ and he hadn't offered them the same chance he had her, she thought. But, she hadn't seen what happened, and the only other witness had been a stormtrooper. She had no idea how to find out which one it had been, since they all looked and sounded the same inside their armor.

Now, the _Executor_ was on its way through hyperspace somewhere on a mission, and she didn't know where. Malysa briefly considered asking Vader, but she sensed him meditating in his quarters, deep in concentration, and she thought he would not appreciate being disturbed.

She had no one else to talk to, no one to discuss things with except Lord Vader, and she knew already what he wanted her to do. No one would try to stop her if she joined Vader, and it was seeming more tempting all the time.

Alone and confused and feeling very small, Malysa Kolos curled up in the middle of the floor of her room and silently begged the Force to tell her what to do.

* * *

In the war room at the Yavin IV base, a Rebel technician looked down at one of his monitors as it beeped suddenly; one of the proximity satellites had been triggered, and when it did not recognize the transponder code of the incoming vessel, it began screaming in electronic panic, its programmed response to any vessel who did not transmit a friendly code within one Standard minute of passing by the satellite.

The satellite went dead suddenly, but not before transmitting a single image to the technician responsible for it. The technician waited impatiently for the image to arrive, and once it had loaded on his monitor, he began screaming in panic as well. The image was out of focus, and depicted only a large, pointed shape painted a dark color blue, but the technician knew that it could be only one thing.

The _Executor_ was here.

* * *

"_All pilots to the briefing room! Repeat, all pilots report to the briefing room immediately!"_

Luke Skywalker heard the announcement over the base's PA system and broke into a sprint, dashing past dozens of other orange-suited Rebels as he suddenly felt a tremor in the Force to go along with the announcement.

He recognized the staggeringly powerful Force presence immediately, and he felt his stomach sink as he realized with a dreadful certainty that Darth Vader had somehow found the Rebel base.

What in the world were they going to do?

* * *

"My lord?" a timid voice asked from three meters to Darth Vader's right.

The Sith Master's eyes snapped open. Instantly, he sensed that something was wrong, and he reached out his senses to discover the Rebels were in a flurry of activity in their base.

Vader slowly got to his feet, glaring at the officer who had entered his quarters as he retracted his senses to his flagship itself. "What is it?" he asked, his voice low and dangerous.

The officer gulped nervously under the Sith Master's withering stare. "Ah, it seems the Rebels have been alerted to our presence, sir. They are readying fighters."

Vader used the Force to calculate their position relative to the gas giant Yavin, and his fuse was further shortened. "Admiral Ozzel came out of lightspeed too close to the system," he growled. "Our attack has been spoiled."

"Ah, he felt surprise was wiser," the officer said, taking a nervous step back as the loose objects in Vader's quarters began shaking from the force of the Sith Lord's anger.

"He is as clumsy as he is stupid," Vader snarled. "I should have had Thrawn in command of my ship from the beginning." He glared ominously at the officer, who emitted a brief, terrified squeak before hastily saluting and fleeing for his life.

Vader stomped over to his chair and stabbed the comm button on the arm so violently he broke it, but the connection was established anyway. A screen flared to life in the corner of the room, displaying the bridge and Admiral Ozzel's face as the _Executor's _commander turned to face _his_ commander.

_"Ah, Lord Vader,_" Ozzel began, a triumphant expression on his mustached face. "_You will be pleased to know-_"

"I will be pleased to know," Vader interrupted acidly, "why you decided to countermand my orders and alert the Rebel base that we were coming."

Ozzel blinked. "_Uh, my lord?_" he stammered, confused.

"I specifically ordered you to come out of hyperspace beyond the range of their sensors," Vader growled at the admiral. "I meant for our slicers to fool their sensors into thinking we were one of _their_ ships so that we could approach unchallenged."

Ozzel actually backed a step away from his monitor on the bridge from the sheer rage in Darth Vader's glare, and he swallowed uneasily. "_Ah, my lord_," he began, starting to feel a slight pressure around his throat, "_I meant to catch the Rebels by surprise, to terrify them into surrender with our presence, and-_"

"And you have 'terrified' yourself out of a job," Vader interrupted, barely able to contain his fury. With the limited speed of the _Executor_'s sublight engines, the Super Star Destroyer would take nearly thirty minutes to come within range of the Rebel base, during which time the Rebels, including the young Jedi, would pack up and flee.

"Ozzel," he snarled at the now quivering admiral, "You are terminated."

He tightened his Force Choke until Ozzel began turning purple, then released the admiral and hurled him all the way across the bridge, hard enough to break eight ribs in his back and one of his arms. More than one officer within range of the monitor's pickup winced as their former commander landed with a sharp _crack_ against the far wall, then slumped to the deck, groaning.

"Piett," Vader grated between clenched teeth to the nearest competent officer, "I trust you will make for the Rebel base with all possible speed?"

The man he'd selected, the _Executor_'s first officer, nodded nervously but smartly. "_Yes, my lord,_" he said, meeting Vader's still-angry gaze unflinchingly.

"Do not disappoint me, _Admiral _Piett," Vader said, giving the man an instant promotion before violently terminating the connection by smashing the comm unit with his mechanical fist.

He knew he was too flush with the Dark Side, but damn it, he was _angry_, and he needed to kill something before he started taking out his rage on more of his officers.

The door to his quarters opened, and Vader whirled to see one of his aides, who took an instinctive step back at the Sith Master's expression.

"What?" Vader demanded.

"Your fighter is fueled and ready, my lord," the man said, fighting to keep the horror from his expression. "The men await your command."

Vader waved him away curtly, and the aide fled. As he passed the inactive screen in the corner, now a dark reflective black, the Sith Master paused as he saw that the eyes looking back at him were red-rimmed yellow. Surprised, he realized why the aide had been so terrified, as had the other officers. He hadn't been so flush with the Dark Side as to make his eyes change color in a very long time, and it surprised him that something as simple as his blundering fool of an Admiral emerging from lightspeed at the wrong time had been enough to set him off.

Vader made his way into his refresher, and stared at his still-yellow eyes in the mirror. Very deliberately, he forced himself to calm down until they resumed their normal blue color, though they shifted back and forth several times before he was finally able to purge his rage. He had thought he'd worked his way past the memories of his initial fall to the Dark Side, which his encounter with Obi-Wan had brought back to the fore, but apparently, he had not, and it was quicker to join him in anger now than ever before. Was he no better than the monster that had killed Qui-Gon? Where was his self-control?

It would take much careful meditation to regain his balance, but Vader decided it could wait until after the attack. Time was of the essence here, and if he did not want Obi-Wan's student to escape, he had to act quickly.

* * *

"I will be brief, for you all need to get to your ships," General Dodonna said to a roomful of anxious pilots. "This will not be an easy fight; our fighters are all we have for defense at the moment, since our fleet is massed in another system and cannot arrive here in time to do us any good."

Dodonna looked out at the pilots. "By our best estimates, _Executor_ will be within turbolaser range of this moon in twenty-five minutes. The rest of our personnel are loading the cargo ships as we speak, and your duty is to buy us enough time to escape." The Alliance general became gravely serious. "I will not lie to you; many of you may not return from this, and there is no shame in staying here to help us defend the base itself as we finish our departure."

He gestured to the large screen mounted next to him on the wall of the stone chamber, which flared to life with a wide shot of the _Executor_. "Lord Vader's flagship is the most advanced ship in his fleet, but it is not without limitations." He pressed a button on his control unit, and the view of the Super Star Destroyer zoomed in on the stern of the massive starship. "If you can get through their shields, the engines are vulnerable, particularly to torpedo hits." The general looked out at the pilots again. "You may not be able to destroy Lord Vader's ship with only your fighters, but you are small and maneuverable enough to make your way past its outer defenses, which are mainly designed for protection against other capital ships.

"You must try to cripple the _Executor_ or at least slow it down long enough for us to escape," Dodonna continued. "If Lord Vader manages to bring his ship within turbolaser range before the evacuation is complete, he will destroy anyone and anything still here. We need, at the minimum," he glanced down to check his wrist chronometer, "thirty-five more minutes to load the bare essentials aboard our ships. You must try to buy us as much time as you can." He swept his gaze around the briefing room quickly, making eye contact with as many of the pilots as he could. "May the Force be with you."

"Snub fighters against a Super Star Destroyer?" the pilot next to Luke muttered. "This is suicide."

"No, suicide would be letting Vader get here," Luke replied. "The general is right; he'll burn this whole moon to the ground. You have friends here, don't you?"

The pilot, who couldn't have been more than three or four years older than Luke, nodded slowly.

"Then defend them," Luke said simply. "If you die, then you'll have died defending someone you cared about, and there isn't any better way to go than that." Obi-Wan's last sad smile drifted through his mind as Luke said this, and he struggled to keep his expression from faltering.

The pilot nodded again, slapping Luke's shoulder as he got to his feet. "Thanks, kid. What's your name?"

"I'm Luke," the young Jedi replied, also rising.

"Wedge," the pilot said, extending his hand. "Watch my back up there, will you?"

Luke shook his hand, smiling slightly. "I will, if you'll watch mine."

Wedge grinned. "You've got yourself a wingman. Let's go, Luke."

The two men, along with the other pilots, made their way to the hangar, where their fighters waited. Luke saw Han talking to Mara near one of the X-wings, and as Wedge went off to his own fighter, Luke caught the end of his friends' conversation.

"I think you should come with us," Han was saying to Mara. "We could use you."

"I'm a good pilot," she said. "I belong in a fighter with the others."

"Red, you're the best shot I've ever seen," Han said. "And that's coming from somebody who's pretty good with a blaster himself." He glanced up at Luke as the young Jedi approached, then turned back to the red-haired Rebel. "I'd really like you in one of my turrets if I'm going to be flying around up there."

"So you're coming with us?" Luke asked, leaning against the fighter's nose next to Mara. She glanced back at him with a brief smile.

Han grinned. "Kid, I was wanted by the Empire before I met you. Alderaan just made it a little worse. I doubt the price on my head'll get any lower if I run, so I might as well help you guys out."

Luke grinned back. "Thanks, Han."

The Corellian shrugged, still grinning. He glanced over at Mara. "So, you coming with us, Red?"

She nodded once. "Just let me get my things."

Han gestured casually back in the direction of the upper levels. "Good idea. We're going straight into hyperspace when the general gives the signal that the transports are away."

Mara nodded again and moved off, brushing against Luke slightly as she walked past him. Luke watched her go for a few moments, then turned back to see Han grinning obnoxiously.

"You've got that stupid look on your face again," he said. "Make sure you're focused on the battle and not your 'ally' there, huh? Wouldn't want the Alliance's only Jedi getting blown away, now would we?"

Luke blushed. "It's really that obvious?"

Han nodded, still grinning. "Painfully." He reached out and punched Luke's shoulder gently. "Hey, I'll keep her in one piece, kid." He grinned again. "I'll be keeping _me_ in one piece, too."

Luke couldn't help but smile. "I guess that's what you're best at, isn't it?"

The smuggler spread his hands. "I wouldn't still be around if it wasn't." He grinned again. "See you up there."

Luke smiled, and Han moved off, shouting something across the hangar to Chewbacca, who stood near the entrance. The Wookiee bellowed back, and the two continued their conversation as they moved off to the _Millennium Falcon._

The young Jedi felt a hand on his shoulder suddenly, and he turned to see a dark-haired man with a mustache standing behind him, a smile on his face.

"Luke Skywalker?" the man said, a note of happiness in his voice.

Luke suddenly recognized the man, and he grinned. "Biggs! I didn't know you were here!"

Luke's childhood friend grinned back. "I didn't expect to see you here, either. When did you finally get off Tatooine?"

"Just a couple days ago. Boy, have I got stories to tell you!" Luke said.

Biggs grinned and slapped Luke on the back. "Hey, I've got a few of my own. We'll catch up when we finish chasing off the Imps, huh?" He gestured at the fighter next to them. "We'd better get going, though. I'll see you at the rendezvous, okay?"

Luke nodded grinning again. An alarm klaxon sounded, and the two pilots rushed off to their ships.

* * *

In space, Luke checked his fighter's systems one last time as his squadron rounded the orange gas giant Yavin. R2-D2 beeped and twittered behind him, running his own systems checks.

"_All wings report in_," Red Leader's voice said over the comm.

"_Red Two standing by,_" said Wedge.

"_Red Three standing by,_" said Biggs.

"Red Five standing by," said Luke, reaching up to adjust his flight helmet. He only half listened as the rest of Red Squadron checked in, too busy trying to center himself in the Force. Concentration was difficult over the swirling mix of emotions he could sense from his fellow pilots; anger, fear, anxiety, bravado, anticipation, and others.

But, hanging over them, almost distractingly noticeable even at this distance, was the overpowering Force presence of Darth Vader aboard their target. He was watching, Luke sensed, and also searching for something. As the dark presence suddenly locked on to _him_, Luke realized that the Sith Master had sensed him.

Momentarily panicked, Luke tried to make himself small in the Force, and breathed a sigh of relief when the dark presence lost its focus on him and moved on. He would have to watch himself, he realized. Darth Vader would be looking for him throughout the battle, and the last thing he needed was a mental assault to try and fight off while being shot at.

"_We're coming up on the target,_" Red Leader said. "_Lock S-foils in attack position._"

Luke reached over and punched a series of buttons on his console, and the wings of his fighter, along with all the others of its class, separated to form the X from which the fighter took its name. X-wings were sleek and fast, armed with four lasers, one on each wing, and a proton torpedo launcher. They were also equipped with shields, a significant advantage over TIE fighters, and hyperdrives. Securing the X-wings from Incom Corporation had been a big score for the Rebellion, since the Empire currently had no fighters which could equal them.

"_Look at the size of that thing!_" Wedge said, clearly astonished.

Luke had to agree with him. The _Executor_ made the already massive Star Destroyers look puny, its menacing angular lines making it look like an enormous arrowhead. It was practically a mobile city, and though Luke had been expecting backup, he realized that the Emperor's flagship didn't need any; it was almost a fleet's worth of firepower by itself.

"_Cut the chatter, Red Two_," Red Leader said. "_All wings, switch on your deflectors, double front. Remember, our job is to protect the bombers and make sure they get a clear run to the engines._"

The rest of Red Squadron acknowledged, and so did Gold Squadron, which was made up of less maneuverable Y-wings. Though the X-wings had torpedoes, Y-wings could hold several more, and thus had a greater chance of being able to land crippling shots on the Super Star Destroyer's engines.

"_We're coming up on the outer shields,_" Red Leader said. "_Get ready, boys._"

* * *

Admiral Firmus Piett, still trying to get used to his new position, stood in front of the bridge viewports, watching the tiny specks of light that were the Rebel fighters draw closer. "How much longer to turbolaser range of the moon?" he asked.

"Eighteen minutes," an officer reported. "Lord Vader reports all fighter wings are ready, and he is launching now."

Piett frowned to himself; it was far too risky for the Emperor himself to be flying around in a TIE fighter, but there was no use telling him that. Emperor Skywalker had always been an excellent pilot, and he often fought on the front lines in space as well as on land, just as he had in the Clone Wars. You had to respect a leader who was willing to put himself in as much danger as the men he commanded, Piett thought. That was probably why the 501st received so many transfer requests; everyone wanted to fight alongside Darth Vader. A posting on his flagship was considered a reward for excellent service.

Piett frowned again. How had Ozzel managed to get himself appointed as the _Executor'_s commander, anyway? He was hardly the kind of officer Vader preferred to have around. But, he thought, even the Emperor had to make concessions to the bureaucrats sometimes. Ozzel was a very well-connected man, so Vader had likely given him the position to appease one of the data-pushers who ran his Empire while he commanded the military. That was one thing still left over from the old Republic, at least; even as powerful a man as Lord Vader couldn't run everything himself, and thus the bureaucrats had gotten themselves a significant amount of power over the years.

But, Piett thought as he asked for another status update, he'd been performing many of the duties Ozzel should have doing himself for the last year, anyway, so it was about time he'd been promoted. There had actually been a betting pool among some of the junior officers about how long it would take for Ozzel to irritate Lord Vader enough to get himself either terminated or killed. Piett had gotten wind of it and had formally disapproved, but had informally won two hundred credits.

As the Rebel fighters drew closer, Admiral Piett purged the last of the unrelated thoughts from his mind and concentrated on strategy. Contrary to Ozzel's boasting, ships that small actually were a threat to the massive _Executor,_ since they were small enough to evade the heavy weapons. But that was why Lord Vader was out there with the fighter wings; the Sith Master had realized his flagship's limitations and had planned accordingly.

Proud to be serving under such a man, Piett resolved to prove himself worthy of his recent promotion and earn Lord Vader's respect by reaching the Rebel base as quickly as possible and preventing any of them from escaping. He would leave the fighters to the Imperial pilots. Two squadrons of terrorists were no match for the Empire's finest.

* * *

"_Red Five, take Reds Two and Three and escort Golds Eight and Nine to the starboard rear shield projectors. Watch out for turbolasers."_

"Acknowledged, Red Leader," Luke said. He tilted his stick off to the side, and he, Wedge, and Biggs peeled off from the main group, falling into formation above two Y-wings. The endless blue hull of the _Executor_ flashed past underneath them, a deadly green rain of turbolaser fire adding to the obstacles they had to dodge.

"Try to keep low to the hull," Luke said. "It'll make us harder to hit."

"_You got it, boss,_" Wedge said, swooping his X-wing among the protrusions on the hull of the Empire's largest ship.

Biggs and the Y-wings followed suit, and Luke hung back to provide cover for the rest of his squad. He kept his senses alert, watching for enemy fighters. General Dodonna had alerted them to multiple launches a few minutes ago, and Luke had been expecting TIE fighters to come screaming at them ever since.

"_Beginning attack run on port target,_" Gold Seven transmitted on the Alliance frequency.

"_We've got your back,_" Gold Leader, -Han Solo in the _Falcon_- responded. "_Red Squadron, watch out for TIEs. We've got three squadrons on our scopes, and they're splitting up to engage."_

"_I see them,_" Red Leader responded. "_Coming in at two-ten. Reds Four and Six with me, Seven and Nine with Golds Three and Five."_

The various pilots acknowledged orders, and Luke glanced up at them as they split off to engage the specks of the approaching Imperial fighters. The larger shape of the _Millennium Falcon_ moved just as swiftly as any X-wing, dodging turbolaser fire as its turrets shot back at the gun emplacements.

"_Three hundred meters to target_," Gold Eight said to Luke.

"Get ready," Luke said to Biggs and Wedge. "We've got TIEs at ten. Wedge, watch the bombers. Me and Biggs will take the fighters."

"_Gotcha, Luke,_" Biggs responded. "_Here we go!_"

Biggs split off and fired at the approaching TIE fighters, deadly orange bursts of laser fire streaming from the wingtips of his fighter. Luke lined up his own shot and fired, lasers raining from his own fighter at the blocky shape of the closest TIE.

The center TIE in the enemy formation fired green bolts back at Luke, and the young Jedi rolled his fighter to the left to avoid them, shooting back as soon as he finished his roll. The TIE also dodged, but not quickly enough, and a few of Luke's shots peppered his port solar panel. His maneuvering capability damaged, the TIE tried to correct his turn, but overcompensated and spun into the fighter closest to him in the formation. Both Imperials vanished in a sudden bright fireball, but their comrades flew through it, shooting back at Luke and Biggs.

Biggs absorbed the first few shots with his shields as he lined up, and with a quick firing pattern, he picked off a TIE fighter as Luke destroyed another.

"_Hey, boss, we could use a little help over here,_" Wedge said, and Luke looked in his direction to see another flight of TIEs moving toward the bombers.

Spinning his agile fighter into position, Luke fired rapidly at the Imperial fighters, succeeding in blowing a solar panel right off the one on the far right edge. Behind him, another explosion flashed as Biggs destroyed the last TIE in that flight, and his X-wing quickly raced into position next to Luke.

"_Watch out, Red Six!_" Red Four's voice shouted over the comm. Red Six's only reply was a quick scream that suddenly cut off as his comm went dead.

Luke caught the bright flash of the explosion out of the corner of his eye, and his jaw set determinedly as he approached the new series of fighters. Fire lanced out from his wingtips, joined a second later by more lasers from Biggs, and ahead of them, Wedge fired, also. The orange bolts met and crossed just in front of the Imperial formation, and two of the ships were unable to avoid, detonating violently.

The remaining TIEs branched off to try and engage the Rebels separately, and Wedge spun his fighter in a tight corkscrew to avoid his opponent's first salvo. Biggs latched onto another fighter like a mynock on a power cable and chased him right into the _Executor_'s hull, firing incessantly and providing no avenues of escape.

Luke pulled his fighter up in a quick twisting loop as another TIE fighter roared past beneath him, and he emerged from his loop right on the Imperial fighter's tail. The enemy pilot tried to swerve to avoid, but Luke matched his motions exactly, firing as quickly as his lasers allowed. The TIE vanished in a blinding fireball a moment later.

Off in the distance, Rebels and Imperials continued to destroy each other, flaring up like tiny novas as heavy blasters and torpedoes found their targets. The _Millennium Falcon_ was just barely distinguishable from all the other specks of light, swooping through frantic maneuvers as it tried to provide cover for the other Rebel ships.

"_One hundred meters to target,_" Gold Eight said. "_We need some cover, Reds._"

"_I got it,_" Biggs said, swooping in with wings blazing to take out a turbolaser emplacement in the bombers' way.

Luke angled his fighter to join his friend, readying his own weapons.

* * *

Darth Vader lined up a Rebel fighter in his scopes and fired repeatedly, his green lasers slicing right through its top right wing. The Rebel spun out of control and crashed into a weapons tower, destroying both the turbolasers and himself.

"Close up formation," he said to his wingmen, accelerating. His TIE Advanced, a heavily modified version of the normal Imperial fighter, roared in response, pressing him back against his chair.

His breathing, filtered by his flight helmet, was deep and raspy in his ears, but unhurried, his focus locked with laser precision on his next target, a Y-wing bomber.

Vader did not use computer targeting systems, aiming manually, but an outside observer would not guess this as his shots relentlessly peppered the bomber with mechanical precision, driving it closer to the hull of the flagship. The Rebel pilot tried to avoid, but Vader hit him too many times in quick succession, and his ship succumbed to the Dark Lord's fire, exploding.

An X-wing suddenly swerved and accelerated to full burn, streaking right for Vader's TIE with all four laser cannons blazing. Vader simply adjusted his controls slightly so that the fire passed within centimeters of his hull and calmly fired back, his bolts intersecting a meter in front of the X-wing's cockpit before impacting and killing the pilot instantly.

Another Rebel fighter whose shields were in slightly better condition tried the same tactic on Vader's starboard wingman, and he managed to deflect the Imperial pilot's first few bolts, but as soon as Vader noticed one of the shots slipping past, he quickly angled his own TIE and sent a bolt right through the X-wing's top right engine. It failed and flared out, destroying the other engine and most of the wing, and the Rebel was unable to maneuver quickly enough to avoid the lethal fire from Vader's other wingman, who destroyed the ship with a flurry of bolts.

"Good shot," Vader said, already moving on to his next target.

* * *

"Ten minutes to turbolaser range," an Alliance technician said to Leia.

"The last transport is fifteen minutes from being able to take off," Dodonna said quietly. "The first still hasn't gone to hyperspace."

Leia sighed grimly. "We're not going to make it."

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: Thanks to Silverwolf05 for looking this chapter and the next over. It's always a good idea to have somebody else read through your writing before you post it, at least in my experience. Chapter 8 will be up the day after tomorrow, since I have a little bit of extra work to do on that one. Thanks for reading!


	8. Victory and Defeat

**Eight**  
(Victory and Defeat)

"_Fifty meters to target,_" Gold Eight said. "_We have a lock. Firing._"

Gold Eight and Gold Nine, Y-wing bombers, fired one proton torpedo each, the small orbs shooting out at the starboard rear shield projector of the Super Star Destroyer _Executor_.

Luke Skywalker watched from the cockpit of his X-wing fighter as the torpedoes smashed into the shield projector with violent force, causing a brief, bright explosion to flare up.

"_Starboard rear shields are down!_" Gold Nine said over the Rebel frequency. "_All available ships, commence bombing runs!"_

"_Golds Three and Five on our way!_" another pilot replied. "_We've lost our escort, so we could use some cover!_"

Luke hauled his fighter over to escort the bombers to the _Executor_'s engines, their target. "This is Red Five," he said over the comm. "I'm on my way. Biggs and Wedge, watch out for Golds Eight and Nine until I get back."

"_You got it, Luke,_" Biggs replied. He and Wedge formed up around the other Y-wings, shooting at any turbolaser emplacements and fighters that blocked the way.

R2-D2's sudden shrill whistle alerted Luke to the fact that a TIE fighter had locked onto his tail, a moment before it fired and missed his upper port engine by centimeters. Luke continued on course for just a moment longer, then suddenly swerved up and to the right. The TIE fighter was not able to turn as quickly as the agile X-wing, and Luke continued his tight spin until he and the Imperial fighter had reversed positions. The TIE spun away from his first several shots, but Luke kept his finger on the trigger, harassing the Imperial pilot until he was distracted enough to fly right into a turbolaser bolt. This had the added bonus of keeping said turbolaser from hitting Gold Three, and she thanked him over the comm.

Luke knew enough to know about the Force to know several of the things he'd done in the pitched space battle were not coincidence or skill; the Force was guiding his hand, and he allowed it to, concentrating on maintaining his calm as Obi-Wan had taught him.

The young Jedi sensed danger a moment before a TIE fighter, this one with augmented weapons and angled solar panels instead of the usual blocky wings, screamed in with two regular TIEs and blew Gold Five apart with a sudden flurry of fire. Gold Three swerved away as quickly as she could, but the custom fighter's lasers followed her, and only with Luke's sudden intervention, flying between the Y-wing and its aggressor and absorbing its last few shots with his shields, was she spared the fate of her wingmate.

"Go quickly," Luke said. "I've got these fighters." Gold Three acknowledged before accelerating away to where Biggs and Wedge protected two more of her fellow Y-wings.

Luke sensed sudden irritation from the center fighter in the enemy formation, followed by curiosity. With a start, he realized the custom TIE's pilot was none other than Darth Vader, out flying in defense of his own flagship.

He sensed equal surprise emanating from Vader as the Sith Master found him in the Force and recognized him.

* * *

Darth Vader altered course to chase after the X-wing that had come between him and his target as he suddenly realized Obi-Wan's student was inside.

He kept his lasers in a constant fire pattern, attempting to herd the young Jedi away from the engines. One of the TIE fighter bays was not far from here, and if he could chase the powerful young man within range of the bay's tractor beam, he could take him captive.

As he chased Obi-Wan's student, Vader was amazed at the boy's skills; the young Jedi was an even more skilled pilot than he had been at that age. Even with his advanced TIE fighter, which was nearly the equal of an X-wing in maneuvering capabilities, the Sith Master had a hard time keeping up with the young man.

Vader fired closer and closer, trying to score a hit on one of the X-wing's engines, but its Jedi pilot was too fast, his reflexes far beyond that of a normal human being, and the usually accurate Sith Lord was completely unable to hit him.

Gritting his teeth in concentration, Vader leaned forward in his seat slightly as he pursued the X-wing closer to the _Executor_'s hull. Soon the two of them were engaged in a daring race among the protrusions in the Super Star Destroyer's dorsal superstructure, moving at their top speeds and using maneuvers that would get an ordinary human killed in the complex maze. But neither man was an ordinary human, and so the chase continued.

* * *

"_You're clear for a run, Gold Nine,_" Red Two -Wedge Antilles- said to one of the bombers over the Rebel frequency.

Leia Organa watched the status board in the war room of the Rebel base on Yavin IV, showing the Emperor's massive flagship as the background, with brightly colored lights to indicate the Alliance fighters. Gold Nine approached the starboard rear engines of the Super Star Destroyer and blinked several times to indicate that it had fired multiple torpedoes. Red Three -Biggs Darklighter- chased a TIE fighter away from Gold Eight, while Gold Three moved in to fire at the next set of engines.

Her eyes were drawn to Red Five, Luke Skywalker's fighter, as his signal raced at breakneck speed through the upper part of the _Executor_'s hull, chased by a single TIE moving equally as fast. Leia knew of only one person aboard the Imperial ship that could possibly have reflexes that fast, and she quickly signaled for any available fighters to come to Luke's aid.

Unfortunately, there weren't any available fighters, since all surviving Rebel ships were either bombers currently trying to disable the _Executor_'s other engines, or X-wings trying to keep the Imperial fighters away from the bombers. Lights disappeared off the status board with alarming frequency, and more Imperial signals appeared all the time. The Alliance had only twenty-four ships to send against the _Executor_, while the flagship carried almost a hundred and fifty. The brave Rebel pilots were simply outnumbered, and their time was running out.

"Seven minutes to turbolaser range," an Alliance technician announced. He, General Dodonna, and Leia, along with two other technicians, were the only people left in the war room; everyone else was aboard the last transport already. "The second transport has gone to hyperspace," the man announced a moment later.

"Nine minutes to liftoff readiness," Dodonna said. "We should get aboard, Princess. Your family's transport should be almost to hyperspace by now."

Over her father's objections, Leia had insisted that he, her mother and her aunts board one of the first transports to leave. She had resolved herself to be one of the last off the small jungle moon of Yavin.

"The transport isn't very maneuverable," she said to Dodonna. "The _Executor_ will have plenty of time to fire on us."

"They won't," the general said, gesturing to the status board. "That's what our pilots are out there fighting for."

* * *

Luke continued his frantic flight away from Darth Vader, who now fired continuously, providing Luke with a whole host of other obstacles besides the building-like protrusions of the flagship's upper hull.

Green lances of death shot past his viewport like a malevolent rainstorm. As he dodged Vader's lasers, a stray bolt impacted with the _Executor_'s hull and hit something sensitive, spewing debris and a large, roiling fireball in Luke's path. He hauled his fighter closer to the Super Star Destroyer's hull, trying to avoid the fireball, and in so doing left himself open for a quick salvo by Vader, who fired rapidly at him. Luke strained his fighter in a wild maneuver, and took only mild damage as the Sith Master's bolts peppered his wings.

The young Jedi had to fly almost completely by instinct, shunting most of his concentration into resisting a mental attack by the Sith Master, who relentlessly battered Luke's mental shields as well as those on his fighter, trying to find a weakness in both.

_Left,_ a voice that sounded like Obi-Wan's said in Luke's head, and he unconsciously obeyed, swerving left at the next intersection between the 'buildings' below the command tower on the huge starship. This caused Luke to pass in front of a turbolaser bolt that Vader had to slow down to avoid, and at the faint voice's next direction, Luke went right, taking him out of sight of the Sith Master.

Luke increasingly had the feeling that his Jedi Master was with him in the X-wing's cockpit, however impossible that might seem. It felt like Obi-Wan was there, looking over his shoulder, and he occasionally felt reassured, like his teacher had given his shoulder a comforting squeeze.

_Faster, Luke. He's getting closer._

* * *

Darth Vader swooped after the X-wing piloted by Obi-Wan's mysterious student, accelerating until even his augmented fighter's engines protested. He had long since left both his wingmen behind, but he didn't care; he was close to losing track of the powerful young man.

A man of lesser skills would have crashed some time ago, but even Vader came close to plowing into a few of the turbolaser emplacements and other obstacles in his path, intent on his pursuit of the young Jedi.

The young Jedi careened between two turrets, the space so narrow that even tilted sideways, the X-wing was a tight fit. Vader was forced to follow by going over the turrets, a move which cost him a few seconds.

He stretched his mind, still tearing at the somewhat feeble mental barricades the young student had erected against the Sith Master. Vader again frowned. He had sensed great power in the youth, but had not expected such resistance.

But then something in the boy's calm seemed to break, and the X-wing's rapid sweeping motions steadied. Grinning, Vader steadied his own TIE to deliver a wounding shot to one of the engines that would hopefully send the X-wing into space to be captured. But unexpectedly, the X-wing shot up, revealing a blazing turbolaser bolt which had been heading straight for the boy. Vader, who had been so distracted lining up his shot that he had not noticed the deception, was forced to roll the TIE to avoid the beam. His trajectory was blocked by a large turret, and he fired his weapons as quickly as he could since his ship's systems were already so stretched by the tight turn that he could not turn again without tearing the TIE to pieces. The metal extrusion exploded seconds before he would have collided with it, and he burst through the resulting blast. His eyes were still adjusting from the nearly blinding flash, but he felt the young Jedi in the Force and in a matter of seconds, had resumed the chase.

He scowled, fully realizing now that Obi-Wan's apprentice had not faltered in the Force at all. If anything, he was growing in strength, and the Dark Lord knew that capturing him was no longer an option.

His strategies against the Jedi instantly changed. A being this powerful was a threat, and if he could not capture Obi-Wan's student, he would destroy him. Someone so powerful, even unskilled, could not be allowed to fight for the Rebellion.

Obi-Wan's student banked hard in a turn that should not have been possible at his speed, moving ninety degrees in only a second as he shot through a gap between two protrusions and banked again a moment later, another impossibly tight turn. Vader's wing came within centimeters of a durasteel wall, and he actually smiled; he hadn't had to try this hard to chase down an enemy pilot in a very long time, and to have his skills tested was a fairly rare experience.

Remembering some of the other high-speed flights he'd engaged in, Vader made a quick adjustment to his thrusters, attempting a maneuver that had worked for him once before.

* * *

Han Solo swerved the _Millennium Falcon_, sending the old freighter through a complicated pattern to lose the numerous TIEs firing repeatedly on his tail. Suddenly an X-wing swooped by, blasters scorching through the solar panel of a TIE. The Imperial craft began a barrel-roll headed straight for the _Millennium Falcon's_ cockpit, coming so quickly that Han was sure it was going to hit something vital. But before it could, a quick series of bolts fired from the upper turret, obliterating the Imperial fighter and one of the other nearby TIEs simultaneously.

"Nice shot, Red!" Han shouted through the headset. The light laugh she gave off was almost lost in the white noise the old headphones continually emitted.

"_You expect me to miss?_" Mara said, and fired again to strike another TIE with deadly accuracy.

A lacerating turbolaser blast struck with a shudder, and the sound of electrical popping and steam hissing free from pipes followed immediately after. Han cursed as he looked at the damage indicated by the instruments before him, but didn't dare take his eyes off his piloting to look down the narrow halls to see exactly what had happened. He swerved again, but the _Falcon_ turned a little slower, and a loud whine started somewhere in the bowels of the ship.

"_Should I man the bilge pumps?_" Mara said, the amusement in her tone coming through quite clearly over the static.

"This kind of thing is perfectly normal," Han said back. A half-dozen TIEs flying in formation swooped over the ship, pelting them with laser bolts and sending the _Millennium Falcon_ into another shuddering spasm.

"_It sure sounds like it_," Mara's voice filtered through, the sarcasm no less biting with the muffling fuzziness. "_Maybe flying through their weapons fire is your strategy?_"

"More shooting, less criticizing," he said irately.

In response, a TIE immediately shattered out of being. A second, a gaping hole now in the solar panel from Mara's accurate shot, careened into the path of one of its companions, obliterating both.

As Han and Chewie swooped the _Falcon_ closer to the _Executor_'s hull to avoid a bunched grouping of turbolaser fire, a blindingly bright explosion flared up from the other side of the massive Star Destroyer, a few kilometers away. Han squinted, and the cockpit windows automatically tinted to block the flash, turning the area to their right black. When the windows resumed their normal transparency, a rapidly dissolving fireball was all that remained of four of the Super Star Destroyer's engines.

"_Targets three and four down!__"_ a triumphant voice crowed over the Rebel frequency."_Repeat, target groups three and four eliminated!"_

"Ha!" Han said to Chewbacca. "Just a few more and we can get out of here. A ship this big'll never get in turbolaser range on only two engine groups."

The Wookiee barked his agreement, reaching up on his board to adjust their forward shields. So far they'd managed to avoid being hit too hard by any heavy weaponry, but not for lack of trying on the Imperials' part. It seemed almost like they didn't care what they hit, as long as they hit something; green lances of energy darted everywhere through the chaotic space above the hull of the massive warship.

A Y-wing exploded in a violent fireball next to them, its momentum carrying its remains toward the _Falcon_, but fire lanced out from both the upper and lower turrets to deflect the debris away from the battered freighter.

"Thanks again, Red," Han said over the headset. "And you, too, whatever your name is," he said to the Rebel in the lower turret.

"_Hobbie_," the young man answered, grunting as he swiveled his turret to fire at a turbolaser emplacement.

"Right," Han said, adjusting another control in an attempt to compensate for whatever had been damaged back there. "Thanks, Hobbie."

As Mara herded another TIE into Hobbie's line of fire, the Rebel bombers succeeded in destroying another group of the _Executor_'s engines. A flight of vengeful TIE fighters swooped in and blew the bombers and their escorts to pieces, roaring after the remaining Rebels with obvious anger. Han smirked. _They're just mad that they're getting their pretty ship all messed up,_ he thought to himself.

Then he sobered. Rebels were dying rapidly out here, and it was his job to protect them with his ship's heavier shields and weapons.

Fearlessly, Han pushed his beloved freighter between the flight of TIEs and their target, absorbing their green laser bolts with his shields. "Get 'em, Red!" he shouted over the headset.

Mara quickly obeyed, blowing most of the flight apart with a punishing volley. From below, Hobbie picked off the survivors, whooping over the headset.

Han grinned. "That's what you get for flying around without any shields, jarheads!" he sneered to the fireballs.

"_This is Base to Gold Leader. Come in, Gold Leader,_" Leia's voice said on their comm suddenly.

Han reached over to acknowledge, leaving the flying to Chewie for the moment. "Yeah?"

"_Han, Luke's in trouble,_" Leia said. "_See if you can find him and help him out._" She paused for a moment. "_Vader's chasing him, and I don't know how long Luke can keep away._"

"You got it," Han said, reaching over to adjust their scanners to look for Red Five's transponder. "I'll be right there."

Once the connection was closed, Han hauled the _Falcon_ over to race for the X-wing's signal.

* * *

Luke glanced behind for an instant, hand still on the stick, and he frowned worriedly. Where was Vader? He hadn't seen him in a while, and Artoo reported that he couldn't find the Sith Master's TIE fighter on his scanners.

Had he lost him? Luke hadn't thought himself good enough a pilot to outmaneuver a legendary flyer like Anakin Skywalker, who had a good thirty years of flying experience on him. But, as he continued to speed through the _Executor_'s upper superstructure, it appeared that that was what had happened.

With a sudden roar that startled Luke and nearly made him lose control of his fighter, Vader's TIE fighter appeared out of nowhere right in front of him, rocking Luke's ship with his exhaust. Luke started to pull up, but Vader rose as well, blocking his way. In desperation, Luke pushed his fighter to a bare meter above the _Executor_'s hull and shot underneath the Dark Lord's ship, accelerating for all his engines were worth as he resumed his frantic maneuvering in the maze.

Vader kept on him, firing relentlessly, and Luke heard a sudden electronic shriek behind him as one of the Sith Master's bolts came within a centimeter of Artoo's domed head. Several more bolts peppered his hull, and Luke dodged frantically in an attempt to keep the Sith Master from hitting his engines. Engine damage and the resultant loss of maneuverability would ensure instant death at these speeds.

Cursing the fact that X-wings had no rear-facing weapons, Luke kept up his rapid swerving and dodging, trying not to hit any walls, but Vader made this difficult, and finally, when faced between a choice of getting hit with lasers or hitting a wall, Luke scraped by too closely to the side of the durasteel maze and clipped one of his wings. Amazingly, this spun him out into open space and not into the other wall, but Luke knew it was a small blessing.

* * *

Darth Vader pursued the spinning fighter up into open space, locking onto it with both his targeting computer and his own deadly accurate marksmanship.

"I have you now," he said, and he squeezed the trigger.

* * *

Luke sensed the Dark Lord locking onto him, and he squeezed his eyes shut, knowing he was done for.

Several seconds went by, and when he wasn't consumed in a deadly fireball, Luke opened his eyes just in time to see the _Millennium Falcon_ soar overhead, a wordless triumphant whoop sounding over his comm as its lower turret fired repeatedly at something behind him.

* * *

"What?" Vader shouted, startled by the sudden appearance of the Corellian freighter. He was so surprised he did not have a chance to evade before his fighter was hit repeatedly, and he lost control, spinning off away from his target.

One last shot hit his cockpit window, and Vader frantically held the atmosphere in his ship with the Force, but not before a shard of transparisteel flew up and hit his flight helmet. He felt a sudden sharp pain in his right eye, and it went dark, causing him to scream in agony.

Vader completely lost control of his fighter then, and it spun off into space, tossing him about inside. Cursing in all the languages he knew, he wrestled with the controls with one hand as he pulled out the shard of transparisteel that had taken his eye with the other, groaning at the intense pain this caused.

Barely able to concentrate over the pain, Vader attempted to stabilize his flight, and he finally hit his locator beacon with one hand, summoning a support ship to come and find him.

* * *

"_You're all clear, kid!"_ Han Solo's unexpected but incredibly welcome voice shouted over Luke's comm. "_Now let's get out of here!"_

Luke finally managed to get his fighter back under control, and he pushed it after Han's battered freighter, speeding away from the _Executor._

Behind them, the other surviving Rebel fighters raced away from the crippled Super Star Destroyer, headed for the last of the Alliance transports. The _Executor_ fired after them with its turbolasers, but in a few seconds at top speed, the Rebels were out of range. Minutes after that, Luke managed to get his damaged X-wing into the mostly-empty cargo bay of one of the transports.

The Rebel Alliance fled into hyperspace, leaving the Imperials behind.

* * *

Darth Vader smashed out the front of his damaged fighter with the Force, stumbling out of the hole and to the deck plates of one of his flagship's hangar bays. A number of Imperial soldiers rushed over to help him, but he angrily shoved them away, disconnecting the systems that held his flight helmet to the rest of his suit.

Gingerly, he pulled the helmet from his head, ignoring the concerned gasps from the officers at the sight of his ruined eye. Trying to ignore the pain, he pressed his glove to his eye as he moved off through the hallways of the _Executor_, headed for the bridge.

"My lord, you must go to the infirmary," a young man in a major's uniform insisted, tugging at the Sith Master's sleeve. "You must have your wound treated immediately!"

Vader pushed him away, stalking through the hallways for the nearest turbolift. A medic who had been summoned by one of the officers on duty in the hangar darted into the turbolift before him, trauma kit at the ready.

The Sith Master permitted the young woman to examine his wound on the turbolift ride to the bridge, frowning angrily to himself all the while. He had been so close, but that damnable Corellian freighter had come out of nowhere! Now Obi-Wan's student had escaped, more determined to fight for the Rebellion than ever.

"I'm sorry, my lord," the medic said, interrupting his thoughts. "It doesn't look like we'll be able to save your eye. The wound is too severe. I can give you something for the pain, though." She held up a small bottle of pills, but Vader waved her off.

"Just put a bandage on it," he said curtly. "I have things to do."

"As you say, my lord," she said, reaching into her bag. "But you must come to the infirmary as soon as you can."

Vader grunted noncommittally, lapsing into thought again. How could he recover from this? The first priority would be to have his ship repaired, and then some radical modifications were in order to prevent the Rebels from doing this again in any future battles. It was incredibly aggravating to know that the Empire's mightiest ship had been humbled by two squadrons of terrorists in fighters. When word of this got out, it would undoubtedly increase support for the Rebellion.

The political pundits would have a field day with this, and Vader knew he would have to keep his temper tightly under control for the next several weeks. Already, he was thinking of how he could spin the report to show how great of a threat the Rebellion was, but his other concerns and mainly his anger clouded his thoughts, and he found himself unable to concentrate.

Working with commendable efficiency, the medic finished applying the bandage several seconds before the turbolift arrived at the bridge, but Vader was too irritated to offer proper thanks, and he pushed past her to storm into the command center of his flagship.

"Damage report!" he barked at the commander of his vessel.

Admiral Piett snapped to attention where he was standing, gesturing for the datapad on which one of his aides had already compiled a list of the damages. "Several of our main engines have been destroyed beyond repair, my lord," he said, admirably keeping his calm. "We will have to enter dry dock for full repairs, but I have sent teams of technicians to repair what they can. The hyperdrive is also non-operational. We will have to be towed."

Vader very carefully pushed down his first instinct, which had been to hurl Piett across the bridge with the Force as he had the man's predecessor. He reminded himself that Piett was too competent an officer to waste like that, and that such an action would push him further into the Dark Side. His balance was so seriously disrupted right now that he feared he might never get it back.

"Contact Grand Admiral Thrawn at Alderaan and have him bring part of his fleet here," Vader ordered, struggling to keep his calm.

"We have also detected a beacon coming from the Rebel base," Piett reported. "Its frequency is one of ours."

Vader frowned thoughtfully. His agent had likely left him a message. "Ready my shuttle and three dropships," he said. "I will investigate myself."

The admiral nodded smartly. "At once, my lord." He paused momentarily. "I… apologize for-"

Vader interrupted him. "Do not apologize, Admiral." He moved closer, staring at Piett with his good eye. "But do not fail me again."

Before Piett could do more than nod, Vader adjusted the bandage on his eye and stormed off the bridge.

* * *

Hours later, the personnel from the Yavin base rendezvoused with their fleet at a prearranged point in the cold black gap between two stars. Admiral Ackbar, the Calamarian commander of the fleet, expressed his apologies to General Dodonna and Princess Leia that he had not been able to arrive in time to help them fight off the _Executor._

Gathered in the officers' wardroom aboard Ackbar's flagship _Home One_, Luke, Han, Leia, Bail Organa, Winter, and General Dodonna sat in the couches arranged around the central holoprojector, discussing the battle.

Typical of Mon Calamari architecture, the room and really the entire vessel gave the impression of being inside a gigantic sea creature's polished shell, and Luke found it a relaxing place to be, an unusual feeling on board a warship.

"I still don't know how Vader managed to find us," Leia was saying. "Did he put a tracking device on the _Millennium_ _Falcon_ somehow?"

Han leaned forward in his seat, looking over at Leia. "There's no beacon on my ship," he said. "Me and Chewie thought the same thing, and we checked all over, but we didn't find anything."

"Could you have told him when he…" Bail paused. "When he interrogated you on the way to Alderaan?"

Leia shook her head firmly. "I am positive I told him nothing when he tortured me," she said. She frowned, absently plucking at the white gown she wore, which still bore the scorch marks from Vader's lightning. "How could the man in all those documentaries about the Clone Wars ever turn into such a monster?" She glanced up at the young Jedi sitting across from her. "Sorry, Luke."

Luke scowled. "Don't be. I think the same thing."

Bail shifted uncomfortably, something not lost on Luke. He sensed great uneasiness coming from Leia's father, and he wondered what was troubling the man. But, he decided not to ask.

"The Empire will be very angry at our escape, and their defeat," General Dodonna said, looking around at the others. "We must go into hiding, for at least the time being. A new base must also be found."

Ackbar nodded, blinking his enormous fish-like eyes. "We have many concerns, but now is not the time to dwell on them." His features shifted into an approximation of a smile. "The Alliance has won a great victory today, and our heroes must be rewarded."

Han exaggeratedly perked up at this, and Luke and Leia both could not help but smile.

"We have proved our determination," Bail said. "That so few people could humble a mighty warship like the _Executor_ shows that our cause is just." He looked over at Luke, smiling slightly. "The Force is with us."

_Let's hope so,_ Luke thought to himself.

* * *

Later, as the Alliance fleet sailed on through hyperspace, Leia's adoptive parents sat down for a quiet word alone in their room. Bail locked the door, turning with a pensive look to his wife. "I don't think we should tell her," he said. "You see the way she talks about him. Leia hates Anakin more than anyone else. I don't know how she would take it if we told her he was her real father."

Breha nodded sadly, looking out of the viewport in their quarters at the swirling blue tunnel of hyperspace. "I know," she said. "But she deserves to know the truth. Luke is the only blood family she has. Shouldn't she know he's her brother?"

"_We_ are her family," Bail said, sitting down next to his wife. "Besides, I don't think Obi-Wan told Luke about Leia. If he knew she was his sister, he would have said something by now."

Breha shook her head. "I don't like lying to her, Bail," she said. "She knows she's adopted; I know she's curious about her birth parents. She's looked up to Padmé all her life. Think how happy Leia would be to know that she was her mother."

Bail nodded, but frowned. "But the question is, would this balance out her horror at knowing who her real father is?"

Alderaan's queen leaned back in the couch, folding her hands in her lap. "You're right, Bail," she said. She looked over at her husband, reaching up to push a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. "You know I love Leia, and I'm so happy we were able to raise her, but I wish things had turned out differently for her and her brother. Their poor mother..."

"Anakin Skywalker has much to answer for," Bail said darkly. "A great many lives have been ruined because of his selfishness." He gestured at the walls of the warship around them. "The galaxy would be a much different place if he had thought more about others than himself during the fall of the Republic."

Breha nodded. She looked over at Bail and met his eyes resolutely. "I want you to promise me we'll tell her when she's ready," she said seriously.

Bail Organa smiled sadly and put his arm around his wife's shoulders "I don't want to put Leia through that kind of pain, but she has to know sooner or later." He gently kissed Breha's temple. "We'll tell her when the time is right."

* * *

_Stand firm, you must,_ a wizened, ancient-sounding voice said inside Malysa Kolos' mind, startling her.

_What?_ she thought back, surprised. Only Darth Vader had ever contacted her this way, but this certainly didn't sound like him.

_Heard your call, I did_, the voice replied. _Your conflict burns strongly in the Force. Alone, you are not._

_Who are you?_ Malysa asked the voice.

_A teacher,_ the voice replied. _Teach you I will to resist the Dark Lord, but quickly we must work. Distracted, he is, but when he regains his calm, sense me he will._

Malysa sat up straighter, watching the massive orange globe of Yavin outside the viewport of her quarters. _What must I do?_ she asked.

_Recall your master's training, you must,_ the ancient-sounding voice said. _Hide your true feelings from Vader, prevent him you must from seeing your thoughts. Mislead him, you must, into thinking he controls you._

_You mean, I should let him think I've started to touch the Dark Side like he does?_

Malysa received a sense of agreement, almost like a mental nod. _Difficult this will be,_ the voice said, _but necessary. Strong enough to defeat the Dark Lord, you are not, but aid you can the one who is. A way you must find to send information about Vader to the Rebellion. Direct it to one named Skywalker._

_Skywalker?_ Malysa asked the voice, surprised. _What are you talking about? Does Anakin have relatives fighting for the Rebellion?_

_We have not time for such things,_ the voice replied. _Show you I will to project thoughts you do not have, emotions you feel not. Difficult this will be, and dangerous. The Dark Side seeks always to draw new ones into its grasp, and struggle you will against its pull. But resist you must, for if you fall, a monster will you become, like the Dark Lord and his followers. Theirs is not the true path, only a foolish compromise. Deceived, do not be by his twisted thinking._

Malysa nodded slowly, nervous about trying to deceive someone with a mind as powerful as Vader. Her first thought was that he would immediately see through her attempt at deception and would kill her on the spot.

_Real, your fear is,_ the wizened voice said, _but conquer it you must. Help you, we will._

_You must stand firm_, a different voice said, this one of an older human man, with a gentle quality and reassuring tone. _Vader is not all-powerful, as much as he would like to think so, and we will help you when we can. Remember your friends, and draw strength from their memory._

_All right,_ Malysa 'said' with some trepidation. _Show me what to do._

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: Much thanks to Silverwolf05, who looked this chapter over and made several valuable suggestions. I kept a few of her expansions since I liked them so much, especially in the section from Han's PoV near the middle. Also, to clear up something a few readers have commented on, Darth Nova(Galen Marek, the protagonist of _The Force Unleashed_) is not actually more powerful than this story's Darth Vader. Vader just thinks he is, since he sees him as a potential threat. Their base Force potential is roughly equal, as is Luke's.

As Vader thought in Chapter 7, he, his son, and Darth Nova are pretty much three of a kind, but of the three, Vader knows the most about the Force and thus could be considered the most powerful. Luke and Nova are about equal in training and skill, so they would be evenly matched in a fight. (not-so-subtle foreshadowing)

The epilogue follows this, and it has more detailed notes, including plans for the rest of the trilogy. Thanks to all readers and reviewers.


	9. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

In a hastily organized ceremony on the remote planet of Dantooine, the heroes of the Battle of Yavin were honored. The personnel who had been at Yavin and the soldiers in Ackbar's fleet gathered on one of the wide, grassy plains, where, as local legend held, a Jedi academy had been thousands of years ago. Little more than overgrown rubble remained on the site now, but there had definitely been a building there once.

Dressed in their finest clothes, the Rebels gathered in two huge columns beneath a magnificent blue sky, looking up as a squadron of fighters flew overhead in formation. A long, wide aisle bisected the crowd of freedom fighters, providing a path for those being honored.

At the signal provided by triumphant fanfare, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca walked down the wide aisle, preceded by Wedge Antilles and Biggs Darklighter. The four men and the Wookiee walked in two groups, heads held high as their fellow soldiers in the fight for freedom from the Empire watched.

Luke wore his Jedi robes, lightsaber at his belt, polished and gleaming in the gentle sunlight. Han wore what he usually did, a white shirt under a black vest and blue trousers tucked into knee-length boots, but his shirt had been pressed and he had closed his collar and combed his hair, about the only concession the smuggler was willing to make. Chewbacca was simply furry.

At the end of the aisle waited Leia Organa, her father and mother, Winter, General Dodonna, and Admiral Ackbar. Each also wore their finest clothes, but Leia, who stood at the center of their group, stood out from the others, radiantly beautiful in an elegant white gown with her rich brown hair worked into a long braid down her back. She maintained a calmly dignified expression as the heroes approached, but her eyes showed the pride she felt.

Biggs and Wedge were the first to be honored, commended for their part in the pitched battle, and the two pilots, dressed in their best uniforms, each received medals for their bravery. They beamed as they stepped aside to let Luke and Han through, and the smuggler and the Jedi moved to stand in front of the princess.

She looked at each of them in turn, smiling slightly, and she turned to General Dodonna as he handed her another medal. Han leaned forward slightly, and Leia placed the medal around his neck. He winked at her as their eyes met when he straightened, and she smiled back, amused at his irreverence.

Next, the princess placed a medal on Luke, and she smiled at him also. The young Jedi's reaction was a little more dignified, and he smiled back at her as well as the other leading members of the Rebellion behind her.

Han and Luke turned to face the crowd of Rebels, and the gathered men and women cheered and applauded, praising the men who'd effectively saved their lives from Darth Vader and his forces.

Luke looked out into the crowd and spied Mara grinning at him from the front row, clapping along with the others. He smiled back at her, feeling pretty good about himself.

Han, of course, saw this, and nudged the young Jedi's arm with his elbow, murmuring out of the corner of his mouth. "Got yourself a medal, kid. You'll be beating the cute redheads off with a lightsaber now."

Luke had to grin. "Shut up, Han," he murmured good-naturedly.

As the Alliance cheered for him and the other men, Luke suddenly found himself thinking of his teacher, and a brief image of a proud smile on Obi-Wan Kenobi's bearded face flashed through his mind for a moment.

_You have done well, Luke_, the old Jedi Master's voice said in his mind. _But your struggle does not end here. Be mindful of the future._

_Your father still remains to be confronted._

* * *

Darth Vader stalked through the halls of the massive stone ziggurat on Yavin IV that had housed the Rebel base, his long black cloak flaring out behind him. A simple black eyepatch covered his injury for the time being; the doctors on his flagship were even now designing a mechanical replacement from exacting specifications prepared by the Sith Master.

He was alone; he'd ordered his stormtrooper escort to search the rest of the base on their own while he listened to the report from his agent.

The Sith Master finally located the beacon, and when he entered the room it was housed in, what looked like a dormitory, he sealed the door behind himself. He called the hidden message recorder to himself with a tug of the Force, sensing the presence left behind by his agent.

He placed the small message unit on the bed -the only furniture in the tiny, cell-like room- and activated it, standing back as the small sphere unfolded itself to reveal a holo-emitter.

A miniature hologram of his agent appeared, a young woman with thick red hair and vibrant green eyes, her image tinted blue. Mara Jade looked directly into the camera and made brief eye contact with him before dropping to one knee, head bowed in respect before she looked back up.

"_My master_," the prerecorded message began, "_I hope you find this message, for I have news of monumental importance. Obi-Wan Kenobi's Jedi apprentice is a young man named Luke Skywalker. He claims to be your son_."

Jade paused for a long moment, no doubt anticipating her master's need to process this information.

Vader stared at the recording, pausing it as Jade began to speak again. He had a son? How was that possible? How had he not sensed him before now? True, he'd sensed the boy's incredible power, but how had he not realized that Luke was his son? He knew it was true, though; he recognized enough of himself in the boy that there was no other possibility as to his origin.

Anakin was momentarily shaken as he realized how close he'd come to killing his own son in the battle above the _Executor_, and he thanked the Force that he'd missed that final shot. An eye was a small price to pay for sparing his only link to his angel.

Padmé must have survived Mustafar at least long enough to have Luke, Anakin realized. She'd lived at least long enough to bring their child into the world, and then had entrusted him to Obi-Wan.

Darth Vader scowled. What lies had Obi-Wan filled the boy's head with? He'd obviously trained Luke in the ways of the Force, and since he'd lied to Vader in the message he'd sent him after Padmé's funeral, he'd probably spent the better part of the boy's life poisoning him against his father. Who knew what the boy thought of him?

But, Vader realized, he could overcome this. The link between flesh and blood was stronger than any lies the Jedi might have told the boy. With his son at his side, Vader knew he would have the power to shape the galaxy in any way he wanted. With Luke's powers combined with his own and his other legions of followers, Darth Vader knew he could finally achieve the goal he'd been striving toward for the last twenty years: somehow finding a way to bring back his beloved Padmé. The ability Palpatine had tempted him to the Dark Side with had to be real; even if it wasn't, he would find a way to do what the old Sith had described, with his son to help him.

His new determination set firmly in his mind, Vader played the rest of Jade's message.

"_I do not know if this is true_," her image continued, starting up again from motionlessness, "_but he believes it to be. Unfortunately, he has also expressed hatred for you, claiming that Anakin Skywalker died in the Cleansing in his mind_."

Jade's image glanced off to the side before looking back up and continuing. "_The Rebels are planning a defense against the _Executor_ even now, and to maintain my cover, I must aid them in this. No one suspects anything, and I believe I have earned the trust of most of their leadership, as well as Skywalker. I cannot risk breaking cover to communicate directly with you, and so do not know when I will be able to contact you with more information_."

She paused momentarily. "_I will continue to maintain cover as an agent of the Rebellion, and I will provide you with any information I can. If I can arrange an opportunity for you to capture Skywalker, I will do so_." Jade paused again, glancing off to the side at a sound off-camera. "_Long live the Empire_," she said quickly, and the message ended.

Plans were already swirling within Vader's head as he destroyed the message capsule and left the small room, resuming his pretense of a search. His determination further strengthened as he thought about all he could accomplish with his son at his side.

He would find Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader resolved, and together nothing could stop them, even death.

* * *

-/\-

**_End Part I_**

**__**-\/-

* * *

Author's Note: The line about Chewbacca's appearance in the medal scene comes from one of Darth Marrs' fics; I included it as both an homage and because it was funny. I highly recommend you check out his stories, especially the 'Legacy of the Red Sun' series, since I have enjoyed them quite a bit. They're in my Favorites section if you want to take a look.

Now, about the story itself: I wrote this very quickly by my usual standards; most of the time it takes me months to finish a multiple-chapter story, since I usually post chapters as soon as I finish them and it can take me a while to find enough free time to write sometimes. In contrast, it was about two weeks from the time I first had the idea to the day I finished typing this chapter. I almost never write that fast, but when inspiration strikes you like that, the words come shooting out of your fingers almost, as I'm sure a few of you know.

As for the other two parts of the trilogy, I'm writing a couple other stories that I put on hold to write this one, so I'll finish those before I start _Empire Strikes Back_. I have an outline for the rest of the trilogy and two bridging stories, but I have a lot of other stuff on my plate right now, including college classes, so it may be a little while. Hopefully it'll prove worth the wait.

UPDATE: If you haven't found it already, the story continues in '_One Missed Strike: Tales From the Rebellion_', a bridging story between this and Part II.

Thanks for reading,

Davin Sunrider

(Revision Note: I noticed a typo in one of the chapters when I was looking over this recently, so I decided to go through the entire story and polish things up a little. Relax. I made only minor changes; correcting typos, improving descriptions, fixing the sentence structure in certain places, that kind of thing. Nothing Special Edition-level. ;) )


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